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A HISTORY OF 
VIRGINIA 

FOR 

BOYS &> GIRLS 




JOHN W. 
WAYLAND 



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Itoni 79" Greenwich 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 




z o 

O H 



A History of Virginia 
for Boys and Girls 



BY 
JOHN Wtv^WAYLAND, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, HARRISONBURG 

VIRGINIA 

AUTHOR OF '* HOW TO TEACH AMERICAN HISTORY' 

"HISTORY STORIES FOR PRIMARY GRADES," ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1920 

^11 rights reserved 



Copyright, 1920, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1920. 



*> t' 



EP 23 1920 
©CI,A597496 



PREFACE 

In this book, which is offered to our schools, the 
author has had three aims : First, to be accurate in 
the truth of history ; second, to be intelHgible and 
interesting to young readers ; third, to be helpful 
to teachers. 

Accordingly, an effort has been put forth to 
make the narrative concrete by presenting facts 
in connection with persons, places, and incidents. 
Geography, civics, and literature, in easy phases, 
are frequentl}^ woven in. Human and social values 
have been kept in mind from beginning to end. 

The author's sincere thanks are hereby tendered 
to all his friends, old pupils and others, who have 
generously aided him in the preparation of this 
book. Some have gathered facts, some have sup- 
plied photographs, some have spoken the needed 
word of encouragement. All have helped : to all 
he is grateful. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
VIRGINIA AS A COLONY OF ENGLAND 

■HAPTER 

I. Virginia and Virginia Dare 

II. A Day in May . 

III. John Smith: His Friends and His Foes 

IV. Pocahontas and Her People 
V. A Red-Letter Year : 1619 

VI. In the Tobacco Fields 

VII. The Kings' Governors 

VIII. "The Old Dominion" 

IX. Bacon's Rebellion 

X. The College of William and Mary 

XI. The Knights of the Horseshoe 

XII. William Byrd and Peter Jones 

XIII. Washington as a Surveyor 

XIV. Washington as a Soldier 
XV. Life on the Plantations 

XVI. Life in the Mountains 

PART II 

VIRGINIA AND THE REVOLUTION 

XVII. Patrick Henry and the Parsons 
XVIII. Andrew Lewis and Lord Dunmore 
XIX. Washington a Soldier Again . 



PAGE 

I 
II 

19 

28 

37 
46 

55 
63 
70 

79 
87 
94 

lOI 

109 
116 
124 



131 

137 
143 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



XX. Jefferson and His Pen .... 149 

XXI. "The Hannibal of the West" . . .156 

XXn. Campbell and King's Mountain . . . 161 

XXni. Washington and Lafayette .... 167 

PART III 

VIRGINIA AND THE STRONGER UNION 

XXIV. "The Mother of States" . . . . 174 
XXV. Washington and Madison in Independence 

Hall 181 

XXVI. Four Virginia Presidents .... 188 

XXVII. John Marshall, the Great Chief Justice 199 

PART IV 

THE PERIOD OF GROWTH AND GREAT 
DIFFERENCES 



XXVIII. The Gateways in the Mountains 

XXIX. RUMSEY AND McCoRMICK 

XXX. "The Mill Boy of the Slashes" 

XXXI. The University of Virginia 

XXXII. Turnpikes and Stage Coaches 

XXXIII. Ante-Bellum Days 

PART V 
VIRGINIA AND THE CIVIL WAR 

XXXIV. John Brown's Raid . . . . 
XXXV. Lee's Defense of Richmond 

XXXVI. Jackson in the Valley . . . . 
XXXVII. Second Manassas and Fredericksburg 



205 
216 
223 
231 

239 
246 



259 
266 

275 
283 



CONTENTS 



IX 



CHAPTER 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 



XLII. 

XLIII. 

XLIV. 

XLV. 

XLVI. 

XLVII. 

XLVIII. 

XLIX. 



Chancellorsville and Gettysburg 
Winchester and Cedar Creek 
Saltville and Wytheville 
The Final Fight for Richmond . 

PART VI 

PROGRESS AND PROMISE 

Lee at Lexington . 

Maury and His Maps 

Jefferson's Dream 

Virginia Authors . 

Farms and Orchards 

Cities and Factories 

Four More Virginia Presidents 

Virginia and the World War 



PAGE 

296 

1 12 



321 

334 
343 
349 
357 
363 
369 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 

PART I — VIRGINIA AS A COLONY 
OF ENGLAND 

CHAPTER I 
VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA DARE 

Virginia is like a wonderful book, full of pic- 
tures, full of stories. And, from first to last, the 
pictures change. At first we see only woods and 
waters, flocks of wild fowls swimming in the rivers 
or flying in the air, with here and there a path 
through the forest leading to the dens of animals 
or to the wigwams of Indians. And the pictures 
are all of hunting and fishing, of the rowing of 
canoes or the sailing of ships ; of red or brown 
people almost as wild as the birds and animals ; 
and of fierce battles between the wild people and 
the white strangers who came over the seas in 
ships. 

Then the pictures change, one after the other, 
and the stories too, as the years come and go ; 
and after a long, long time we see Virginia as we 



2 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

know it to-day — our Virginia, filled with farms 
and orchards, towns and cities ; with homes and 
schools and churches ; with roads wide and 
smooth, with railroads straight and long ; and with 
telephone and telegraph wires carrying our mes- 
sages from house to house and from city to city. 

But the roads and railroads of to-day often lie 
upon the very paths that the Indians and the 







THE BUFFALOES WERE GOOD PATHFINDERS 

buffaloes used to follow through the woods and 
across the hills. The rivers and bays that now 
carry our ships of steel are the same that long ago 
were dotted here and there with flocks of fowl 
and frail canoes. Where many of our towns and 
cities rise there once stood Indian villages. Our 
homes are often on a camping ground or a battle 
field. And the stories that go along with the 
changes that have taken place we call history. 



VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA DARE 



Our first story, "Virginia and Virginia Dare," 
will tell us how this part of the New World came 
to be called Virginia and why the first English child 
born here was also called Virginia. 

Ever since the early days when John and Sebas- 
tian Cabot, two brave captains from England, 
came over to the New World, the kings and queens 
of England had claimed this country. Therefore, 
whenever any one 
came over here from 
England he was ex- 
pected to tell the 
king or the queen all 
about it. 

In the year 1584, 
Sir Walter Raleigh, 
a fine English gentle- 
man, a friend and 
favorite of Queen 
Elizabeth, sent over 
some men to find a 
good place to make 
a settlement. They 
looked at many 
places along the strange shores, but they seemed 
to like best an island that they found on the coast 
of what is now North Carolina. There the natives 
were friendly, game was abundant, and the forests 
of cedar and pine were rich and green. Back to 




SIR wa; tkr 



FRIEND OF THE 



QUEEN 



4 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

England the explorers sailed and made report to 
Raleigh. He carried the report to Queen Eliza- 
beth. She was so much pleased with the new 
countr3^ as it was described to her, that she called 
it Virginia. 

In giving the new land this name the queen no 
doubt intended to honor it and also herself. 
Being unmarried, she was called the Virgin Queen. 
Virginia, as she thought of it, was the land of the 
Virgin Queen. Virginia it has ever since been 
called. 

Of course, nobody at that time knew just how 
large this country was, and nobody could have 
told just where Virginia began or where it ended. 
But it was very large. It included not only what 
is now Virginia and North Carolina, but also most 
of the country between Florida on the south and 
Canada on the north. 

The island that pleased Raleigh's men so much 
was called Roanoke Island. It still bears that 
name. It is about twelve miles long and three 
or four miles wide. If you will examine a good 
map of the North Carolina coast you will see that 
the island lies behind a long, narrow wall of sandy 
beach, between Pamlico Sound on the south and 
Albemarle Sound on the north. Albemarle 
Sound is really the wide mouth of Roanoke River, 
which pours its waters down from the far-away 
mountains, through Virginia and North Carolina. 



VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA DARE 



5 



To Roanoke Island Sir Walter Raleigh sent a 
colony. When it failed he sent another. All 
this took time — 
three or four years, 
though it does not 
take long to tell 
about it. 

InRaleigh's second 
colony was the Dare 
family. Dare was a 
good name for people 
going into a strange, 
\\'ild country, was it 
not.? Mr. Dare's 
given name was Ana- 
nias ; his wife's name 
was Eleanor. Soon 
after they reached 
Roanoke Island a 
little daughter was 
born to them. They 
called her Virginia. 
They probably gave 
her this name in 
honor of the Queen 
and because they had come to make their home in 
this new land which was called Virginia. 

Virginia Dare was a good name. It seemed 
to have a note of prophecy in it. It seemed 




A MAP OF THE VIRGINIA-CAROLINA COAST 



6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

to tell of a spirit that was to make Virginia 
great. 

The little girl, Virginia Dare, was, so far as we 
know, the first child born of English parents in 
America. We cannot help wishing that we knew 
her whole story. What became of her is one of 
the sad mysteries of those early days. 

Virginia Dare's grandfather, John White, had 
been appointed by Raleigh as governor of the 
Roanoke colony. When Virginia was only ten 
days old Governor White got on a ship and started 
back to England. He had to go back for more 
food and other supplies. He expected to return 
to Roanoke Island soon ; but in those days, when 
ships had to depend on the winds, it often took six 
months or longer to make a trip across the At- 
lantic and back. 

Governor White did not get back to Roanoke 
Island for nearly four years. A war in Europe 
between England and Spain had delayed him more 
than the uncertain winds. When he returned 
to the island no Virginia Dare could he find. 
Indeed, he could find none of the colonists he had 
left there. All were gone. Grass was growing in 
the fort. Houses were empty. Some books and 
pictures, torn and soiled, were scattered here and 
there. The only thing he could see that he 
thought might guide him to his lost friends and 
little Virginia Dare was a strange word cut 



VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA DARE 



into the bark of a large tree. This word was 
" Croatan." 

Croatan was the name of another island that 
lay forty or fifty miles south of Roanoke Island. 










"no VIRGINIA DARE COULD HE FIND" 



Governor White tried to reach Croatan, but the 
ship fell into a storm on the way and was delayed. 



8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

After several days the captain of the ship lost cour- 
age or quarreled with Governor White and turned 
the ship toward England. At any rate, the sad- 
hearted governor never found his granddaughter 
or his lost colony. 

When Governor W^hite reached England and 
told his sad story, Sir Walter Raleigh sent out other 
ships to search the Virginia shores, but all in vain. 
The lost colony of Roanoke was never found. 
Virginia Dare may have starved to death. She 
may have been murdered by the Indians ; or she 
may have grown up and lived long among the 
savages -of some dusky tribe. Nobody knows. 

But the state of North Carolina has honored the 
memory of the Dares. As the state is laid out 
to-day, Roanoke Island forms a part of Dare 
County ; and every year the people who live on 
the island keep a holiday in honor of Virginia 
Dare. They come together near the place where 
she was born and tell her story to the little girls 
and boys who live tjiere now. And the name of 
the belt of water that separates Roanoke Island 
from the mainland is called Croatan Sound. 
Nobody could live long in that part of the country 
without hearing of Virginia Dare. 

Sir Walter Raleigh spent 'large sums of money 
and worked hard for many years trying to found a 
colony in Virginia, but he failed. His failure to do 
what he had set his heart upon doubtless hurt him 



VIRGINIA AND VIRGINIA DARE 9 

more than the loss of his wealth ; and the tragic 
end of the brave men and women who had trusted 
him and had faced the seas and the wilderness 
under his direction must have saddened him 
most of all ; yet his men who got back to Eng- 
land took with them some gifts that have en- 
riched England and many other parts of the 
world. From the wild shores of Virginia they 
carried back the white potato (now often called 
the Irish potato), tobacco, Indian corn, and the 
turkey ! They also carried back much knowledge 
that proved of value to those who came to the 
New World later. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The English claim to North America rested upon the 
Cabots' discoveries. 

2. Queen Elizabeth called the new land Virginia in honor 
of herself. 

3. Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, where Sir 
Walter Raleigh's men were trying to plant a colony. 

4. Virginia Dare was the first child of English parents 
born in America. 

5. It was through Raleigh's men that the potato, Indian 
corn, tobacco, and the turkey became known to Europe. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Allen : North Carolina History Stories ; Book I, pages 

29-37- 

Guerber : Story of the Thirteen Colonies; pages 83-86. 



10 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia; pages 3-15. 

Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 5-10. 

Suggestions. — For a little instructive entertainment it 
might be well to have one of the older girls impersonate Queen 
Elizabeth, one of the smaller ones Virginia Dare. One boy 
could be Raleigh, another John White. Let each tell his 
own story. 

Four more children could present to the Queen the four 
great gifts. One could carry a basket of potatoes, one several 
ears of corn, one a stalk of tobacco, and one a big picture of 
a turkey. 



CHAPTER II 

A DAY IN MAY 

On a day in May in the year 1607 three Httle 
ships came saihng up a broad river. On the 
ships were a hundred or more Enghshmen. At a 
point about forty miles up from the mouth of the 
river, where a large shoulder of land extended 
into the water, the ships stopped and the men 
landed. The river at this point is three or four 
miles wide, and the shoulder of land extended out 
from the north bank a mile or more. 

The Indians called this great river Powhatan, 
after their mightiest chief; but the Englishmen 
called it the James, after their king, in England. 
On your map you will see that this great river heads 
in the Alleghany Mountains. It breaks through 
the Blue Ridge at Balcony Falls, and on its banks 
are now the rich cities of Lynchburg and Richmond. 
Guarding its mouth are Newport News, Ports- 
mouth, and Norfolk. Through the mouth of 
Chesapeake Bay it pushes its way to the ocean, ii 

You will also observe that the capes at the 
mouth of Chesapeake Bay are called Charles and 
Henry. The hundred Englishmen of whom we 



12 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



speak gave the capes those names in honor of the 
two sons of King James ; and the village that they 
founded up the river where they landed they called 
Jamestown. 

Jamestown was begun twenty years later than 
Raleigh's settlements on Roanoke Island ; and it 




JAMESTOWN ISLAND TO-DAY, AS SEEN FROM A BOAT IN THE RIVER 

came near to failure, time after time, during the 
first few years. Fatal diseases, lack of food, hostile 
savages, and quarrels among themselves made the 
Jamestown pioneers few and wretched. If it had 
been easy for them to get back to England they 
would have gone, and the histor}^ of Virginia would 
be different. But the ocean was wide ; ships 
were few ; the winds were uncertain. Dangers 



A DAY IN MAY 



^3 



and death faced them here, but distances and 
difficulties kept them here. And so, in the slow 
march of years, the settlement on the James was 
established. 

Jamestown is famous as the first English colony 
in America that held out. It became the cradle of 







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THE JAMES RIVER OPPOSITE THE OLD JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENTS 

a great republic. That is to say, the childhood 
of Virginia and of the United States began at 
Jamestown. It was there that many of our great 
lessons of government were first learned in this 
country. 

When the white men at Jamestown began to 
cut down the straight pine trees to build their 
houses, it was the first time an ax of iron was 
heard in that part of Virginia. The Indian axes 



14 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

were of stone or copper. The Indians were known 
to be hostile, so one of the first structures the 
white men built was a sort of fort. The wall 
was probably made of heavy logs, ten or twelve 
feet long, set up on end, one tight against the other. 
Where the ground was marshy and soft these logs 
may have been sharpened and driven down. At 
other places a trench was dug, the logs were set 
down into it, one against another, and the earth 
tamped in around them. Such a wall is called a 
palisade, and the place inclosed by a palisade is 
called a stockade. Many of the early forts in this 
country were stockades. 

Although most of the Jamestown men were 
daring and jolly fellows, they also had a deep 
respect for God and for religion. Accordingly, 
they soon built a church. Indeed, one of the first 
things they did after they landed was to hold 
religious services. The minister. Rev. Robert 
Hunt, stood under an old canvas sail stretched 
from two trees across to one or two other trees 
not far away. His pulpit was a bar of wood 
nailed to two of the trees. Around the sides 
were wooden rails ; and the seats were logs and 
hewn planks. In bad weather the men crowded 
into an old rotten tent. Under such conditions 
Mr. Hunt read prayers, preached sermons, and 
invoked the blessings of God upon their work 
and their hopes. 



A DAY IN MAY 15 

And, all around them, in spite of fever and ague, 
in spite of hunger and savages, there were many 
things to give them hope and courage. Some of 
the land was marshy, but much of it was well 
drained and fertile. Wood for fires and timber 
for building were abundant and near at hand. 
The rivers and creeks were ready-made roads for 
boats and canoes, and the waters were alive with 
fish. When the sun came out it scattered golden 
light among the green trees and the wild flowers, 
and the perfume of the buds and blossoms seemed 
all the sweeter because of the songs of the birds. 

The old sail between the trees and the rotten 
tent in days of storm Served as a church till a 
better one could be erected. This better one 
was homely enough, looking like a barn. It sat 
up above the ground on the tops of forked posts. 
The roof was made of poles, coarse grass, and 
earth. Most of the dwelling houses were equally 
rude. Some thirty years later a strong brick 
church was built, the bricks being carried over 
from England in ships. The tower of that brick 
church is still standing. It is eighteen feet square, 
and the walls are three feet thick. 

This old brick church tower stands almost alone 
to mark the place where our brave forefathers 
landed that pleasant day in May. For as time 
went on other towns were built at healthier places, 
and Jamestown was gradually deserted. The 



i6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

strong tide of the mighty river has cut deep into 
the soft banks of the island — for the old shoulder 
of land is now an island — and if the government 
had not built a strong wall of masonry to break 
the force of the river current the old church tower 
too, and the graves around it, might in time be 
cut away. As it is, the foundations of many of the 
old houses of Jamestown are under water. When 
the water is clear one may look down into it and 
see the outlines of stone and brick foundations in 
the river bed. 

The company of men who came to Jamestown 
in 1607 were sent out from London by a strong 
organization of merchants and land agents called 
the London Compan}^ This company got its 
power from the king. The written statement 
given them by the king, setting forth what they 
might do and what they might not do, was called a 
charter. Various charters were granted to the 
London Company by the king from time to time 
till 1624. 

The directors of the London Company were 
anxious to establish settlements in Virginia for a 
number of reasons. They wanted settlers here 
in order that the gold or the silver or the fish or 
the furs or the valuable woods that might be found 
here could be collected and shipped to England. 
And they had the notion that there was much 
gold here and that it was probably easy to get. 



A DAY IN MAY 17 

In the second place, they were interested in 
carrying the flag of England into new regions, 
thus to extend the power and influence of the 
British government. In this the king himself was 
naturally much interested. 

In the third place, some of the men of the London 
Company and many others in England were 
anxious to educate and civilize the Indians, and to 
teach them the true religion. Besides all these 
reasons, some men in the Company and in England 
were eager to travel in strange countries, to hunt, 
to explore, to encounter dangers and adventures. 
Such things would add a keen spice to life and 
give them fine tales to tell when they got back 
home. 

We may say, therefore, that it was desire for 
trade and wealth, with patriotism, the missionary 
spirit, and the love of adventure, that drew the 
London Company together, got the charters from 
the king, and stirred men to cross the ocean for 
the new, strange country. These motives, with 
others, brought thousands to the new shores here 
and there as the years passed. 

The Jamestown settlement and a few others 
near it stood alone in the wilderness for a number 
of years. All the way from the Spanish settle- 
ments in Florida to the French hamlets in Nova 
Scotia, the Virginians on the James were the only 
Europeans living on the Atlantic coast of North 



i8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

America. Then in 1613 or 1614 some Dutch 
traders built their huts where New York City 
now stands, and in 1620 came the EngHsh Pilgrims 
to Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. But people 
in New York and Massachusetts were not close 
neighbors to Virginia in those days. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The first permanent settlement in Virginia was made at 
Jamestown, on the James River, in 1607. 

2. This was the first permanent English settlement in 
North America. 

3. The colony was sent over by the London Company, 
under a charter from King James I. 

4. The motives that led to the enterprise were (i) desire 
for trade and gold, (2) patriotism, (3) the missionary spirit, 
and (4) the love of adventure. 

5. It was at Jamestown that some of the first and greatest 
lessons in American government were learned. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Gordy : Colonial Days ; pages 7-24. 

Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 9-20. 

Otis: Richard of Jamestown ; pages 9-54. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia; pages 16-41. 

Smithey : History of Virginia ; pages 33-47. 

Stanard : Jamestown and the Association for the Pres- 
ervation of Virginia Antiquities. 

Sydenstricker and Burger : School History of Virginia ; 
pages 16-31. 



CHAPTER III 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH: HIS FRIENDS AND HIS 

FOES 

On that pleasant day in May, 1607, when those 
three Httle ships came saiUng slowly up the James 
River and stopped at the big shoulder of land 
where Jamestown was soon built, one might have 
seen among the men who stepped ashore a sturdy 
young fellow named John Smith. He was only 
twenty-eight years old, but he was a strong 
swimmer and a brave soldier. He had a record 
of which he was proud, and we may be certain that 
he walked with his head up and his shoulders 
straight, even though he was under arrest. 

Yes, John Smith was under arrest. When the 
ships had left England, sent out by the London 
Company under the charter from the king, Smith 
was one of seven men already selected to govern 
the colony ; but on the way over something had 
happened to turn his companions against him. 
Perhaps he boasted too much of what he had 
done as a soldier in Europe. Perhaps he talked 
too much of what he was going to do in Virginia. 

19 



20 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

What caused the trouble we do not know exactly ; 
but we do know that he was charged with mutiny 
and arrested, and that he was still under arrest 
when the colony landed and founded James- 
town. 

But John Smith was soon to be heard of again. 
Shortly after the arrival at Jamestown he had his 
trial and was set free. Then he began to explore 
the rivers and the woods ; to fight and trade with 
the Indians ; and to w rite books. 

In that crude village of Jamestown, on the edge 
of the Virginia wilderness, John Smith wrote the 
first English book ever written in America. People 
still read it. It has a long title, which I shall not 
ask you to remember ; but it tells many interesting 
facts about life at Jamestown and adventures in 
Virginia during the first thirteen months that 
Smith was here. In all he remained in Virginia 
only two years and a half; but within that 
short period he did so much to help the colony 
that we may truly call him the " Father of 
Virginia." 

And, for short, we may call that first book of his 
"A True Relation." This is the first part of its 
long title. He also drew a map of Virginia, which 
was sent over to England about Christmas, 1608 ; 
and with it was sent a letter written by Smith. 
His "True Relation" (True Story) of Virginia 
had been sent over some six months earlier. All 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 



21 



of these and various other writings of his were 
pubHshed in London from time to time. And it 
is from Smith's books that we get most of our 
knowledge about the first settlements on the 
James. 

So John Smith, like Julius Caesar, was both a 
writer and a fighter. He had to fight to keep 
the Indians from killing 
him and the other men 
at Jamestown ; and he 
wrote, I suppose, be- 
cause he liked to write. 

But to live at James- 
town the first two and 
a half years and to do 
enough in that time to 
earn the title, "Father 
of Virginia," John Smith 
had to perform many 
other tasks besides fight- 
ing and writing. 

As I have told you, he explored the rivers and the 
forests. And he not only fought the Indians, he 
also made friends with them whenever he could 
He knew that a good friend is better than a bad 
enemy. From the Indians he often obtained corn 
and other food for the sick and starving men at 
Jamestown. When he was president of the coun- 
cil, or governor, he had to look after things in 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 



22 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

general. All this was a big job for a young man 
who had come to Jamestown under arrest. There 
must have been something born in John Smith 
that made him a leader of men. His courage, 
his honesty, his good sense, and his skill in doing 
things soon proved him the greatest man among 
them all. 

He was not called governor or president all the 
time. Those titles were borne by first one and 
then another. But Smith was the mainstay of 
the colony as long as he was there. In the village 
he had bitter foes as well as trusty friends. One 
of his worst enemies was a man named John 
Ratcliffe. And often the men who were not his 
enemies were difficult to manage. He had a hard 
time keeping the laz}^ fellows at work, keeping the 
bad ones from swearing, and keeping the unruly 
ones from quarreling and fighting among them- 
selves. 

In truth he did not always succeed in doing 
all these things. You have heard the old saying, 
"When the cat's away the mice will play." So 
it was' at Jamestown. Nearly every time Smith 
returned from an expedition he would find the 
men at Jamestown in trouble. Quarreling, sick- 
ness, lack of food, and hostile savages made the 
graveyard grow faster than the town ; and un- 
willingness to work and to obey orders made bad 
matters worse. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 23 

One time when fire broke out and destroyed most 
of the cabins, many of the beds, some of the guns, 
and a part of the precious food supply, Smith 
could hardly get the men to work to rebuild the 
cabins. What do you think was the reason ? 
They were too busy digging out some yellow dirt 
which they had found and which they thought 
was gold ! They had to send a shipload of it to 
England before they would believe that it was not 
gold. 

The fact that Smith was able, under such condi- 
tions, to save the colony at all proves him a strong 
and a wise man. 

We have spoken of the men at Jamestown, not 
of women and children. There were no women 
and children there for about a year and a half. 
Then two women came. They were followed by 
others from time to time. But for ten years or 
more the white women and children in Virginia 
were comparatively few. The consequent lack of 
home life was one thing that stood in the way of 
the colony's progress. 

From June i, 1607, to September, 1609, Smith 
with small companies of his friends went out many 
times far into the wilderness. He went up the 
James River as far, it seems, as the seven hills 
where Richmond now stands. At that point are 
the falls, or the rapids, in the river. They mark 
the upper limit of tidewater. One time, after 



24 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

he had gone up the river from Jamestown a few 
miles, he turned the boat to the right, into the 
mouth of the Chickahominy, and followed it 
upstream until the boat stuck fast on the bottom. 
Then leaving most of his men in the boat, Smith 
took two of them, got into an Indian canoe, and, 
with some friendly Indians as guides, went on up 
the stream. 

Thus following the Chickahominy, the little 
company finally reached a point in the White Oak 
Swamp. This is not far east of Richmond. 
There in the swamp Smith was attacked by a band 
of hostile Indians, who captured him and took 
him to their kings. Of his adventures while a 
prisoner of the Indians you will learn something 
in the next chapter. 

Besides exploring the James, the Chickahominy, 
the York, and other neighboring rivers. Captain 
Smith also searched out many of the shores of 
Chesapeake Bay. On his voyage up the bay he 
went into at least two broad rivers that still bear 
Indian names : the Rappahannock and the Poto- 
mac ; and once, it is said, he got up into the head- 
waters of the bay as far as to the spot where the 
city of Baltimore now stands. 

He learned to know Powhatan, the Indians' 
mightiest king, and Opechancanough, Powhatan's 
brother. The latter lived to a great age and never 
ceased to hate the white men. And Smith made a 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 



25 



friend of Powhatan's brave daughter, Pocahontas, 
whose name is written largein the history of Virginia. 
One day in the autumn of 1609, as Smith and 
some of his men were saihng down the river towards 
Jamestown, some powder in the boat exploded 
and burned Smith 
terribly. To put out 
the fire he jumped 
into the water and 
almost drowned be- 
fore his men could 
pull him back into 
the boat. Not long 
afterward he re- 
turned to England, 
where he lived most 
of the time till his 
death in 1631. He 

, . J . J POCAHONTAS, POWHATAN's BRAVE DAUGH- 

Was DUriea m ivOn- ^^^ jjj England she wore fine 

don. 

Before he died 
Captain Smith wrote several more books, but he 
never returned to Jamestown. He did come over, 
about 161 5, to the shores of New England, spend- 
ing a year or so in explorations there. Perhaps he 
may have seen some of the traders from Holland 
who were then beginning to settle on Manhattan 
Island and along the Hudson River. The Pilgrims 
had not yet come to Plymouth Rock. 




clothes and was called 

REBECCA" 



26 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



It was a long time before John Smith was 
honored at Jamestown with a monument ; but if 
you should go there to-day you would find one. 
In the year 1907, just three hundred years after 
the founding of Jamestown, a great exposition to 
celebrate the event was held 
near there ; and it was in the 
same year (1907) that the 
monument to Captain Smith 
was erected. It stands near 
the old brick church tower, a 
figure of bronze on a base of 
white stone. The head is bare 
and the left hand rests on the 
hilt of a sword. On the front 
of the stone base is cut this 
inscription : 

CAPTAIN 

JOHN SMITH 

GOVERNOR OF 




JUHN .SMIIH MONUML.Nr 
AT JAMESTOWN 



VIRGINIA 

1608 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. During the first two years and a half at Jamestown 
Captain John Smith was the ablest and wisest man. 

2. While at Jamestown, Smith wrote the first English 
book ever written in America. 

3. Smith also explored the country and made maps, which 
were published in England. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 27 

4. In 1907 the Jamestown Exposition was held and a 
monument to Smith was erected at Jamestown. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 11-17. 
Guerber : Story of the Thirteen Colonies; pages 87-97. 
Otis: Richard of Jamestown ; pages 54-78. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 42-55. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 17-55. 
Sydenstricker and Burger : School History of Virginia ; 

pages 31-38. 

Note. — The monument to Captain Smith was presented 
to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiqui- 
ties by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bryan of Richmond. 

Suggestions. — i. This chapter may easily be supple- 
mented with a story or two of Smith's early life as a soldier. 
Rossiter Johnson's "Captain John Smith," published by 
The Macmillan Company, will be found a delightful book 
in this connection for teacher and pupils. 

2. At the point where Smith is termed both a writer and 
a fighter, the teacher may add a helpful touch by reading 
certain lines from the first portion of Longfellow's "Court- 
ship of Miles Standish." 



CHAPTER IV 



POCAHONTAS AND HER PEOPLE 



We have said that the name of Pocahontas, the 
favorite daughter of Powhatan, is written large 

the history of Virginia. By 
is we mean that she did much 
help the white people in the 
arly days of danger, and that 
ever since then her name has 
een remembered and honored, 
or example, in 1821 a county 
of Virginia was named after 
her. In 1863 this county and 
forty-nine others were made 
into the state of West Vir- 
nia ; but that county is still 
called Pocahontas. On a map 
the Mountain State, as West 
irginia is often termed, you 
can see it ; and you will notice 
that some of the head- 
waters of the James 
River come from 
the mountain valleys 




AN INDIAN BOY. POSSIBLY POCAHONTAS 
HAD SUCH A BROTHER 



just east of Pocahontas County. 



28 



POCAHONTAS AND HER PEOPLE 29 

On a fair day in June, 1898, the writer went down 
the James River from Richmond to Norfolk on a 
trim new steamboat. In those days that new 
boat was spoken of as a "beautiful stranger on the 
James." It stopped at Jamestown Island and 
many other places along the winding course of the 
historic river. But its name was not new, neither 
was it strange or unknown. That new boat was 
the Pocahofitas. For many years it steamed up 
and down the James, the ancient river of Powhatan, 
passing from day to day the places where Poca- 
hontas as a child and as a young woman used to 
see Captain John Smith and the other white men 
from England. 

But the first meeting of Smith and Pocahontas 
was on the York River. After Smith had been ' 
captured in the White Oak Swamp he was led 
before chief Opechancanough. The latter at once 
decided to kill him ; but luckily Smith had in his 
pocket a small compass. This he showed to the 
savage chief, whose eyes began to sparkle as he 
watched the needle dance round the dial. Then 
he tried to put his finger on the dancing needle. 
When his finger touched the glass and the needle 
went on dancing the chief was much astonished. 
He at once began to associate Smith and his 
compass with the fearful powers of the gods — 
the good and evil spirits that the Indians be- 
lieved in and worshiped ; and he came to the 



30 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

conclusion that he had better not be so hasty with 
Smith. 

Accordingly, Smith with his compass was taken 
around as a sort of show. After he had been led 
to a number of the Indian villages he was conducted 
to Werowocomoco. This place was on the north 
bank of the broad York River, about three miles 
from the present Yorktown, measuring across the 
water. Yorktown is on the south side of the 
York. Werowocomoco was on the opposite side, 
a mile or two farther up the river. 

Werowocomoco was the winter residence of 
Powhatan, the great chief of all the surrounding 
tribes. 

When Smith was led before this monarch of the 
wilderness he saw an old man who had once been 
strong and active, and who still carried his seventy 
or eighty years like a king. The old warrior's 
face was not much wrinkled. His hair, once 
black, was thin and gray, hanging down upon 
his broad shoulders. He had a few hairs upon 
his chin and upper lip. Around him stood fifty tall 
braves, and behind him waited his group of wives. 

In the companies about the king were other men 
and women who were rulers in their own villages. 
For instance, the woman who brought Smith 
some water to wash was the queen of Appomattox. 
When he had washed she gave him a bunch of soft 
turkey feathers for a towel. 



POCAHONTAS AND HER PEOPLE 31 

But in spite of all this show of kindness the 
captive was still regarded as a dangerous enemy. 
A council of war was held and it was decided to 
put him to death. Two stones were placed before 
Powhatan and Smith was laid upon them. A 
strong warrior with a heavy club stood ready 
to beat out the prisoner's brains. 

Then Pocahontas declared herself Smith's friend. 
She sprang forward and, shielding him with her own 
body, began to plead with her father for his life. 

If it had been any one else who made the plea, 
perhaps Powhatan would have paid no heed. 
But he could not refuse his favorite child. At 
length he said that Smith might live, and he gave 
him over to Pocahontas to be her servant. 

Some persons question this story, but it is prob- 
ably true. Among the poets that have put it into 
verse was the great English writer, William Make- 
peace Thackeray. Here is the last stanza of his 

poem : 

"Dauntlessly aside she flings 
Lifted axe and thirsty knife, 
Fondly to his heart she clings, 

And her bosom guards his life ! 
In the woods of Powhatan, 
Still 'tis told by Indian fires 
How a daughter of their sires 
Saved a captive Englishman." 

Pocahontas at this time was probably twelve or 
thirteen years old. By the time Captain Smith 



32 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

left Virginia in the autumn of 1609 she was fourteen 
or fifteen. Within this period she saved Smith's 
Hfe more than once, risking her own Hfe to do so. 
And she also saved the Jamestown colony. She 
kept the Indians from attacking the white men 
or she gave the white men warning, saving them in 
that way. More than once she got a party of 
Indians together and had them carry corn and 
other provisions to Jamestown. If it had not 
been for her the settlers might all have starved to 
death. 

If Captain Smith is called the *' Father of Vir- 
ginia," Pocahontas may justly be termed its 
" guardian angel." 

In April, 161 3, about three and a half years after 
Smith had returned to England, and after many 
more white people had come to Virginia, there 
was an interesting marriage at Jamestown. The 
groom was a fine young Englishman named John 
Rolfe. The bride was the Indian princess Poca- 
hontas. The latter was at this time about eighteen 
years old. She had professed faith in the Christian 
religion and had received baptism according to the 
practice of the Church of England. 

The minister at this time was not Mr. Hunt, 
but Mr. Alexander Whitaker. The old stone 
font that is said to have held the baptismal water 
is now kept at Williamsburg, seven or eight miles 
north of Jamestown. At Williamsburg one of the 



POCAHONTAS AND HER PEOPLE 33 

historic landmarks is old Bruton Church ; and 
in this church one of the interesting relics that 
visitors may see is that old stone font. 

After Pocahontas and Mr. Rolfe were married 
they lived for two or three years at Varina, in 
Bermuda Hundred. The latter was one of the 
new settlements along the river above Jamestown. 
Then in 1616, when Sir Thomas Dale, governor 
of Virginia, went to England, Mr. and Mrs. Rolfe, 
their little son Thomas, and several of Pocahontas's 
Indian friends went with him. 

In England Mrs. Rolfe was received witK much 
honor and was known as Lady Rebecca. Rebecca 
was the name that had been given her at James- 
town when she had become a Christian. 

In England Pocahontas was much surprised to 
meet Captain John Smith. She had been told 
that he was dead. 

After a year or so in England the Rolfes were 
preparing to return to Virginia, but it was the 
fate of Pocahontas never to see her native land 
again. She developed a rapid consumption and 
soon died. Her body was laid to rest in England, 
but her spirit and her name, her descendants and 
her memory, still live in Virginia. Her son, 
Thomas Rolfe, after growing up and being educated 
in London, returned to his mother's country — 
to Virginia — where even to-day many of the best 
people are proud to claim him and his mother as 



34 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



their ancestors. In Surry County there is an old 
brick house which was owned at one time by 
Thomas Rolfe. 

And what of the Indians in Virginia to-da}^ ? 




TWO PICTURES OF A PAMUNKEY INDIAN GIRL, NOW LIVING IN VIRGINIA. SHE 
IS THE chief's daughter, AND SHE HAS A SISTER POCAHONTAS 



A few still survive. Among the many tribes 
that the white men found here were the Pamun- 
keys. The Pamunkey River is a tributary of the 
York. Powhatan, it is said, was of the Pamun- 



POCAHONTAS AND HER PEOPLE 35 

key tribe. A small number, a hundred or more, 
of the Pamunkeys still remain. They live on a 
reservation of 800 acres of land at Lester Manor, 
between Richmond and West Point. They live 
and dress now much like other Virginians. They 
have a school and a church of their own. They 
have their farms, gardens, and orchards ; but they 
still do a good deal of hunting and fishing. They 
still have their own chief; and one of the chief's 
daughters has been kind enough to allow her 
picture to be made for this book. She has a sister 
Pocahontas. 

The Pamunkeys pay no regular taxes to the 
state, but for many years it has been the custom 
of their chief to carry a basket of fish or game 
to Richmond at Thanksgiving and another at 
Christmas as presents to the governor. 

It is said that there are in Virginia also a few 
survivors of the Chickahominy tribe. And here and 
there on the islands of Chesapeake Bay it might be 
possible to find small remnants of other tribes who, 
in the days of Pocahontas and Powhatan, were 
hunters and fishers and warriors in tidewater 
Virginia. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, became a friend to 
Smith and to the Jamestown colony. 

2. It was through her friendship that the settlers were 
more than once saved from massacre and starvation. 



^6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

3. Pocahontas became a Christian and married John 
Rolfe. From their son, Thomas Rolfe, many people now 
hving in Virginia have descended. 

4. A few Indians, mostly Pamunkeys, still live in Vir- 
ginia. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Guerber : Story of the Thirteen Colonies; pages 97-101. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History ; pages 29-34. 
Maury : Young People's History of Virginia ; pages 27-34. 
Otis: Richard of Jamestown; pages loo-iii. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 43-54. 
Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 70-86. 
Smithey: History of Virginia ; pages 15-23 ; 54-56. 



CHAPTER V 

A RED-LETTER YEAR: 1619 

We speak of 1619 as a red-letter year in the 
history of Virginia because so many things of 
importance took place that year. First, the colony 
was granted a new charter, better than those 
charters it had received before. Second, a shipload 
of young women came over to make good homes 
for the Virginia bachelors. Third, the export 
of tobacco began to be a big business. Fourth, 
steps were taken to establish a large college. 
Fifth, the first negro slaves were brought to James- 
town. 

Let us now^ take up these things in order. 

Until 1619 Virginia had been under two or three 
different charters and seven or eight different 
governors. One of the governors, Sir Thomas 
Dale, had been too harsh, but he had done some 
things that helped the colony. For example, he 
had enlarged the clearings in the forests so as to 
have more land for corn, and he had encouraged 
the raising of horses, cattle, and hogs. The best 
thing he did was to give each man three acres of 
land for his own. From his three acres each 

37 



38 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

owner had to pay taxes. Each year he had to give 
six bushels of corn to the government. But the 
rest of his crop was his own. From this time on 
the Virginia farmers began to work better and to 
be more interested in the colony. 

With the better charter of 1619 came a good 
governor, Sir George Yeardley. Under this 
charter Governor Yeardley carried Dale's plan 
much farther. Every person who came to Vir- 
ginia at his own expense and stayed three years 
or longer could have fifty acres of land. Each 
one also who had been there for three years prior 
to 1619 could have fifty acres. 

Under such conditions people became anxious 
to live in Virginia. At the beginning of 1619 
Virginia had only 400 settlers. They were 
scattered along the James as far up as Bermuda 
Hundred and Dutch Gap ; and a few were on the 
Eastern Shore. Before the end of 1619 twelve 
hundred more had arrived; and by 1622 there 
were more than 4000 white people in the colony. 
By that time the plantations extended up the 
James to the Falls and the Seven Hills ; and on the 
Eastern Shore were three or four settlements, 
located at or near the places where the towns 
of Cape Charles, Eastville, and Onancock now 
stand. 

But the charter of 1619 enabled Governor 
Yeardley to do something else that was better, 



A RED LETTER YEAR: 1619 39 

perhaps, than makmg the Virginians independent 
landowners. It required him to give the people 
a larger share in the government. It allowed the 
planters to elect men from their own number to 
help make the laws of the colony. Therefore, 
soon after Yeardley arrived in Virginia he divided 
the whole colony into eleven districts and re- 
quested each district to elect two delegates. Thus 
there were elected in all twenty- two men. On 
July 30, 1619, these twenty-two men met in the 
little wooden church at Jamestown. They were 
the representatives of the people. Together with 
the governor and his council they were the law- 
makers of Virginia. They composed the first 
legislative body in the New World, elected by the 
people. 

This was a great event. It reminds us of what 
was done in old England in 1265, when, under the 
direction of Simon de Montfort, the British House 
of Commons had its beginning. The body of the 
people's delegates at Jamestown was called the 
House of Burgesses. From that time on the 
people of Virginia thought more of themselves, 
of their homes, of their rights, and of their colony 
than ever before. 

The shipload of young women reached James- 
town early in the year 1619. The ninety maids 
who landed were doubtless poor, but they were 
honest and courageous. In the old country they 



40 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

had seen little chance for wealth or usefulness. 
In the new country were promise and hope, in spite 
of all the dangers. So to the new land these 
young women came. Soon they met ninety lone- 
some bachelors, and then there were ninety more 
weddings in Virginia. Before this there were a 
few women in the colony, but not enough by any 
means. After this there were, more real homes in 
the wilderness, and the men did not talk so much 
about going back to England. Soon the colony 
was more firmly established. 

It was not long till another shipload of young 
women came to Virginia, and they too found hus- 
bands promptly. The Company was careful to 
send only good young women, and the governors 
made an effort to see that only worthy men married 
them. 

By this time tobacco was used in the colony as 
money. The cost of bringing over one of these 
young women was equal to the value of about 
1 20 pounds of tobacco. Accordingly, before a 
groom could claim his bride he was required to 
hand over enough tobacco to pay her expenses 
on the voyage. Thus it came to pass in those 
days that 120 pounds of tobacco was spoken of 
as the price of a wife. 

About this time, moreover, the exporting of 
tobacco from Virginia to England began on a 
large scale. John Rolfe and others had shipped 



A RED LETTER YEAR: 1619 



41 



some tobacco before this ; but in 1619 the business 
became notable. In that year a cargo of 20,000 
pounds left Virginia, The next year the shipment 
was twice as large ; and in 1622 the quantity sent 
abroad was 60,000 pounds. Wheat, corn, and 
barley were also grown, but for many years 
tobacco was used as money and was the most 
important export from Virginia. 




JAMESTOWN IN l622. IN THIS PICTURE THE PALISADES SHOW PLAINLY 

Many of the colonists were disappointed in not 
finding gold ; but it was only a few years until 
tobacco and corn took the place of gold. 

One of the most interesting subjects that the 
Virginians were discussing in 1619 was the college 
that was to be built at Henrico. Henrico was a 
village on the James at the point now called Dutch 
Gap. The plan was to make Henrico a city and 
the capital of the colony. Naturally, the college 



42 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

was to be located there, and it was to be called the 
University of Henrico. 

This school was to be used especially for educat- 
ing the Indians, so that they all might in time 
become Christians. Thus we can see how strong 
the missionary spirit was in those days. For 
several years this school had been thought of and 
talked of on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1618, 
under the direction of King James himself, a 
large sum of money for the school had been col- 
lected in England. In the summer of 1619 one 
of the first things the new House of Burgesses at 
Jamestown did was to enact certain laws to aid 
the college. Before the end of the year large tracts 
of land had been set aside to be used for the sup- 
port of the school. 

These plans, which went so hopefully forward 
for several years, were rudely shattered in 1622 
by a terrible attack by the Indians. The "City 
of Henrico" was destroyed. The superintendent 
of the college lands and seventeen of the tenants 
thereon were killed. The University of Flenrico 
remained only as a splendid memory. 

But in spite of all difficulties, schools were 
established in early Virginia from time to time. 
For example, in 1634 Benjamin Syms gave two 
hundred acres of land in Elizabeth City County, 
with eight cows, to support a free school. A few 
years later Thomas Eaton, in the same county, 



A RED LETTER YEAR: 1619 43 

left an estate for the same purpose. In honor of 
these men the high school at Hampton is to-day 
called the Syms-Eaton Academy. 

The year 1619 was, indeed, a red-letter year. 
It was a year when ships came in and ships went 
out. It was a time when hopes were high and 
great deeds — and some sad deeds — were done. 
One more thing we must notice. About the last, 
of August, 1619, a Dutch ship came to Virginia 
and sold to the governor and others twenty negroes. 
These were the first negro slaves sold in this 
country, so far as we know. Thus began a traffic 
that was unfortunate in many ways. 

In some parts of the New World where the 
Spaniards had settled the Indians were enslaved. 
In Virginia and other colonies, from very early 
times, white servants were often bound to masters 
for certain terms of years and then set free. They 
were called indentured servants. But the negroes 
were generally held as slaves for life, and negro 
slavery lasted in many parts of our country for 
more than two hundred years. Many good men 
and women in Virginia and in other states tried 
to stop slavery, and some of them set their own 
slaves free ; but the practice was hard to get rid 
of and it was not stopped altogether until the end 
of the Civil War, of which you have often heard 
your fathers and mothers speak. 

One man who had a great deal to do with making 



44 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

1619 a red-letter year for Virginia in the happier 
ways we have pointed out was Sir Edwin Sandys. 
He was a member of the London Company. He 
did a great deal to secure the good charter of 1619 
and to encourage young women to, come to Vir- 
ginia. Thus he had a large part in giving the 
colony a better government and better homes. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The year 1619 was of unusual importance in the Vir- 
ginia colony. Some of the great events of that year were 
the following : 

(i) The first election of lawmakers from the planta- 
tions : the beginning of the House of Burgesses. 

(2) The first large incoming of women : the extension 
of home life in the colony. 

(3) A notable growth in the shipment of tobacco from 
Virginia to England. 

(4) Many definite steps toward the establishment of a 
college at Henrico. 

(5) The introduction of African slaves. 

2. Sir Edwin Sandys should be given credit for many of 
the helpful measures. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 55-79. 
Maury: Young People's History of Virginia; pages 64- 
68. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Armstrong: The Syms-Eaton Free School; pages 1-27. 
Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 131- 
145- 



A RED LETTER YEAR: 1619 45 

Smithey : History of Virginia; pages 57-62. 
Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 59-66. 

Notes. — i. In connection with beginnings in Virginia 
the teacher will find "The Old Dominion, Her Making and 
Her Manners," by Thomas Nelson Page, of much interest 
and value. 

2. On August 15, 1919, the 300th anniversary of the first 
meeting of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown was cele- 
brated in the House of Delegates at Richmond. The pro- 
gram of this celebration, as published at the time, with the 
newspaper reports, should be preserved in many of our school 
libraries. 



CHAPTER VI 
IN THE TOBACCO FIELDS 

It was in the tobacco fields that the prosperity 
of Virginia was finally established. It was in 
the tobacco fields that negro slavery first came to 
be regarded as a necessity. And it was in the 
tobacco fields that many of the habits of life that 
long distinguished Virginia had their origin. In 
other words, it was the extensive cultivation of 
tobacco in colonial Virginia that colored and 
shaped her life and her history in many ways. 

Tobacco was the first thing the white men found 
in Virginia to make them rich. As we have seen, 
they were disappointed in not finding gold ; but 
soon they found that if they carried tobacco to 
England they could exchange it for gold or almost 
anything else ; for it was not many years after 
Sir Walter Raleigh's men carried tobacco home 
with them until the "fragrant weed" sold readily 
in London at a good price. 

At first the men at Jamestown did not see the 
gold on the tobacco leaf. For five or six years 
they made no effort to grow it for market. Then 
one of them saw his chance. It was our friend 

46 



IN THE TOBACCO FIELDS 



47 



John Rolfe. He found that he could grow tobacco 
successfully. He also learned of the demand for 
it in England. Putting his ideas into action, he 
was soon building up a profitable trade by raising 
tobacco in Virginia and exporting it. 

Another man who got the same idea almost as 
soon as Rolfe did was Governor Dale. Then it 












h^£ 




A VIRGINIA TOBACCO FIELD 



Spread quickly. Soon tobacco was growing in 
all sorts of places : in fields, in gardens, and even 
in the streets of Jamestown. After some years, 
it is said, the Indians stopped growing tobacco, 
finding it cheaper or more convenient to buy it 
from the white men. 

The success with which tobacco could be grown 
and sold soon led to an unexpected danger. 
The settlers became so anxious to plant tobacco 



48 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

that they neglected to plant corn. This was bad, 
for corn was needed for food, and tobacco could not 
take its place. While a ship was making a trip 
to England and back the colony might have 
starved. Accordingly, Governor Dale made this 
rule : for each acre planted in tobacco the farmer 
had to plant three acres in corn. 

This was a good rule, and if it had been enforced 
by all the early governors it probably would have 
been helpful to all concerned. 

As soon as men in England saw that the Virginia 
planters were making money growing and shipping 
tobacco, many of them hastened to the new 
country and went into the same business. Thus 
the population of the colony was rapidly increased 
and the tobacco trade grew by leaps and bounds. 
In 1628, half a million pounds were exported ; in 
1639, a million and a half; and in 1753, the year 
that George Washington was twenty-one years 
old and Thomas Jefferson was ten, the amount of 
tobacco exported by Virginia planters reached 
the huge figure of 53,000,000 pounds. . 

The extensive planting of tobacco hastened the 
clearing of the forests and pushed the settlements 
up the rivers. Tobacco grows best in new land 
— land from which the trees have recently been 
cut. Accordingly, as soon as the planters wore 
out one field they cleared another. Land was 
plentiful and cheap. They did not think of trying 



IN THE TOBACCO FIELDS 49 

to enrich the old field — they let it lie idle ; and 
in a few years it grew up in pines. 

The farms usually bordered on the rivers, 
especially the deep rivers ; for it was very con- 
venient for the planter to have the boats come 
up to a landing at the edge of his field. It saved 
him the trouble and expense of hauling his tobacco 
to a wharf some miles away. 

And thus the growing of tobacco kept the 
settlers scattered. In New England everybody 
lived in or near a town, but in Virginia most of the 
people lived in the country, as they still do. In 
many cases the plantations were large, so that 
neighbors were miles apart. Under such conditions 
each family, with its servants or slaves, made a 
little settlement of its own, and had to rely upon 
its own resources most of the time. Habits of 
active life and self-reliance were developed. Boys 
learned to ride horses and to row boats, to hunt, 
to fish, and to follow trails through the forests. 
Women and girls learned to manage the household, 
to direct the tasks of the domestics, and to entertain 
guests for days at a time ; for one had to travel too 
far in those times to pay a visit to think of returning 
home the same day. 

And at the head of the whole plantation stood 
the father of the family, as commander-in-chief. 
Often he had foremen and overseers under him, • 
but if so he was still at the head. Such conditions 



50 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

made him a master and a leader of men. It is not 
surprising^ therefore, that so many of the old 
Virginia planters showed remarkable powers of 
leadership wherever they went. 

The fact that so many laborers were needed on 
the plantations and the fact that the negroes could 
do the work desired soon resulted in fixing slavery 
on the colony with a strong grip. 

In England tobacco sold for money, and in 
Virginia it was used as money. For many years 
very little real money found its way over to Virginia. 
There were so many things that the colonists 
needed to buy that most of their tobacco money 
was left in London. So at home, in Virginia, they 
made tobacco take the place of money for a long 
time. The Indians used shells and woven belts, 
called wampum ; the trappers in many places 
used beaver skins ; at various places in the southern 
colonies corn and rice were used ; but in colonial 
Virginia, as a rule, tobacco was money. 

The gallant Virginia bachelors, as we have seen, 
paid for their wives in tobacco — at first 120 
pounds apiece, later 150. Taxes came to be 
reckoned in tobacco. Even the preachers — the 
pastors of the local churches — received their 
salaries in so many pounds of tobacco. 

Frequently, instead of hauling his tobacco 
around from one store to another as he or his 
wife went shopping, the planter would place his 



IN THE TOBACCO FIELDS 



51 




tobacco at some reliable warehouse, get certificates 
for it, and then trade the certificates in making his 
purchases. Who- , 

'idbhai/iC}! 



ever held a cer- 
tificate owned the 
tobacco covered by 
thecertificate. This 
is the plan now fol- 
lowed by our na- 
tional government 
in respect to gold 
and silver. The 
gold and the silver, 
much of it, is left in 
the vaults at Wash- 
ington or some 
other city, while 
the gold certificates 
and the silver cer- 
tificates pass from 
hand to hand as 
money. 

We must admit, 
however, that to- 
bacco was not a 
very good standard 
money. It changed in value too often. As the 
prices went up or down from time to time it was 
very hard to adjust debts that had been made when 




FOR MONEY, THE INDIANS USED SHELLS AND 
WOVEN BELTS, CALLED WAMPUM 



52 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

the price of tobacco was different. Such conditions 
often led to trouble between debtors and creditors. 
A famous instance was the Parsons' Case, of which 
we shall hear later. 

As we know, there were only a few small towns 
in early Virginia. Most of the families lived on 
the widely scattered plantations. But the gover- 
nors and their councils, with many members of the 
House of Burgesses, were anxious to have more 
towns. So they devised a plan which they thought 
would hasten the building of towns. They passed 
a law in 1680 that required the planters to haul 
their tobacco to certain specified points on the 
rivers and load it on the boats at those points 
only. At those points warehouses would be built 
and towns would grow up. 

The planters objected to this law very seriously. 
They wished to continue loading their tobacco 
at their own- wharves, or wherever they found it 
most convenient to do so. In the counties of New 
Kent, Gloucester, and Middlesex the planters 
finally destroyed a large part of their tobacco 
rather than submit to the law. This riotous action 
took place in 1682 and is known as the Tobacco 
Rebellion. Soldiers were sent to put down the 
rioters, a number of whom were severely punished. 
Several of the leaders, it is said, were hanged. 
But the Virginians still raised big question marks 
after such laws as this one, and in like manner 



IN THE TOBACCO FIELDS 53 

after the laws of Parliament that required them to 
sell their tobacco and other products for the 
special benefit of British merchants. 

The tobacco fields of Virginia are still turning 
from green to gold. In many sections of the 
state, south and east of the Blue Ridge, one may 
see thousands of tobacco "patches," large and 
small, every summer. The broad green leaves 
often hide the ground, and if the field is kept free 
from weeds and worms it presents a very attractive 
appearance. In the towns and cities of eastern 
Virginia tobacco warehouses and tobacco factories 
are much in evidence. Lynchburg, Danville, 
Petersburg, and Richmond are great centers for 
the marketing and the manufacturing of tobacco. 
And Virginia not only sells tobacco, it also buys 
it from many distant lands. To Richmond, espe- 
cially, tobaccoof various types is imported and there 
in the factories it is blended with that grown at 
home in the numerous finished products that are 
put upon the market. 

An interesting feature of life in the tobacco 
factories is the singing of the negroes as they work. 
Many of them are employed in certain depart- 
ments of the factories, and often a considerable 
number of them work near together in the same 
room. With many of them it is a habit to sing 
' from day to day, keeping a sort of happy time in 
their tunes to the motions of their hands and 



54 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

bodies. Often the music is weird and beautiful. 
To hear it is worth a journey of miles. In some 
such manner, no doubt, the fathers and mothers of 
these negroes sang, generations ago, in the tobacco 
fields along the James, the York, and the Rappa- 
hannock. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. After the men at Jamestown found that they could 
grow tobacco successfully and get a good price for it in Eng- 
land, they began to grow it and to export it on a large scale. 

2. For many years tobacco growing was the chief business 
of the Virginia planters. 

3. Plantation life kept the people scattered, made negro 
slavery seem a necessity, and developed self-reliance and 
leadership in the plantation owners. 

4. For a long time tobacco was used very generally in 
Virginia as money. 

5. The Tobacco Rebellion of 1682 showed a growing dis- 
position on the part of the planters to oppose laws that 
they regarded as unjust. 

6. Tobacco is still an important commodity in the fields 
and factories of eastern Virginia. 

PUPIL S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 67-69. 
Gordy : Colonial Days; pages 29-32. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia; pages 146-162. 
Moore: Industrial History of the American People; 

pages 131-154- 

Smithey : History of Virginia ; pages 64, 65. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE KINGS' GOVERNORS 

In 1624 Virginia became a royal colony. From 
that time on, therefore, till Virginia became an 
independent state in 1776, the king of England, 
most of the time, appointed the governors. Some 
of those royal governors we should remember, 
and we shall name a few of them presently ; but 
first let us learn something about the different 
kinds of colonies. 

There were three kinds of English colonies in 
America, and Virginia at different times repre- 
sented all three kinds : charter, royal, and proprie- 
tary. Prior to 1624 she was a charter colony. 
After 1624, most of the time, she was a royal 
colony ; but for a few years she was a proprietary 
colony. 

Under the early charters granted by King 
James, as we learned in Chapter II, the London, 
Company was allowed to govern the colony. 
Under the later charters, as we learned in Chapter 
V, the planters were allowed to have a share in 
governing themselves. A charter colony, as a 
rule, was allowed a considerable measure of self- 
government. 

55 



56 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

But by 1624, or earlier, King James became 
alarmed regarding the Virginia colony. He feared 
that the planters were assuming too many privi- 
leges. He also became offended with some mem- 
bers of the London Company. So he revoked the 
charter. Thenceforth Virginia, as a rule, like 
other royal colonies, had a governor appointed by 
the king, though Virginia, we must admit, was 
not held as closely under royal authority as royal 
colonies usually were. 

In a proprietary colony one of the king's friends, 
or several of them, were put in control. In Mary- 
land, for example. Lord Baltimore was put in 
control ; in Pennsylvania, William Penn ; in Geor- 
gia, James Oglethorpe. In those colonies those 
men stood somewhat in the king's place. They 
were landlords or proprietors. Their colonies 
were called proprietary colonies. In a proprietary 
colony the proprietor appointed the governor or 
acted as governor himself. For a few years, from 
1673 to 1684, Virginia was a proprietary colony. 
Culpeper and Arlington were the proprietors. 

Some of the notable governors that Virginia 
had while she was a charter colony were Captain 
John Smith, Lord Delaware, Thomas Dale, and 
George Yeardley. The list of royal governors 
that we shall mention is somewhat longer ; for 
Virginia was a royal colony for a long time — 
nearly one hundred and fifty years. 



THE KINGS' GOVERNORS 57 

The first royal governor that we shall notice 
was Sir John Harvey. He was not regarded as a 
good ruler. On the contrary, the Virginians hated' 
him ; but we mention him for two reasons. The 
first reason is that while he was governor, in 1634, 
the first Virginia counties were laid out. There 
were eight of these counties, or shires, and their 
names were Charles City, James City, Henrico, 
Elizabeth City, Isle of Wight, Northampton, 
Warwick, and York. The second reason is that 
because of Governor Harvey's bad conduct the 
people finally impeached him and arrested him. 
They sent him back to the king, charging him with 
taxing them unjustly and with failing to respect 
the House of Burgesses. 

' From 1642 to 1652 the king's governor was Sir 
William Berkeley. He was a man of education 
and fine manners, but he was not in sympathy 
with the free spirit of the New World. He did 
some good things for Virginia, but he was selfish 
and wasteful. He was also afraid that the people 
would do too many things without asking his 
leave. 

Owing to a great civil war in England, Berkeley 
was set aside for several years ; but in 1660 he 
was made governor again, and this time he con- 
tinued to hold the ofifice for sixteen years. But 
his way led to sorrow. His faults produced 
Bacon's Rebellion, of which we shall hear again. 



S8 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



In spite of the fact that Governor Berkeley 
became very unpopular before he left Virginia, 
"a rich county of the state was allowed to take his 
name, many years after his death. Berkeley 
County was one of the fifty counties that, in 1863, 
were erected into the state of West Virginia. 

Lord Culpeper was another colonial governor 
who was honored in the naming of a Virginia 

county. From it came 
the famous Culpeper 
Minute Men of Revo- 
lutionary days. But he 
was not exactly a king's 
governor. As we have 
already noted, Culpeper 
and Arlington were pro- 
prietors of Virginia from 
1673 to 1684. Culpeper 
himself acted as gov- 
ernor for two or three 
years. He was regarded 
as unjust and tyrannical. 
The Tobacco Rebellion of 1682 was one thing that 
gave him a chance to make the Virginians feel his 
heavy hand. 

Two governors who were popular in many 
respects were Francis Nicholson and Edmund 
Andros. Both of them had been governors before, 
in New York or in New England. There they 




SIR EDMUND ANDROS 



THE KINGS' GOVERNORS 59 

both had done badly ; but in Virginia both did 
well in most respects. Nicholson did much toward 
the establishment of William and Mary College, 
of which we shall learn more farther on. The 
college was actually opened in 1693, while Andros 
was governor. He perhaps did not favor it, but he 
had the good judgment not to oppose it. 

Iq the year 1698 Nicholson was made governor of 
Virginia a second time. In that year he did some- 
thing that a good many of the colonists did not 
like. He moved the capital away from James- 
town. But he did it with good reason. James- 
town alwa^^s had been an unhealthy place, and 
not long after Nicholson came back in 1698 the 
town was again destroyed by fire. Accordingly, 
he moved the capital eight miles north, near the 
new college, at Middle Plantation. He laid out 
Middle Plantation on a splendid plan, shaping it 
for a city. The name he changed to Williams- 
burg. Williamsburg is to-day the oldest city in 
the state and is one of the most interesting places 
in America to the student of history. 

Another good governor of colonial Virginia was 
Alexander Spotswood. Of him we shall hear again 
in connection with the Knights of the Horseshoe. 
He is known as the Tubal Cain of Virginia because 
he was the first to encourage the working of iron. 

William Gooch was acting governor for twenty- 
two years — from 1727 to 1749. It was during 



6o A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

his long term that many new settlements were 
made in the northern and western parts of the 
colony. For example, the towns of Richmond, 
Petersburg, Winchester, and Staunton were all 
laid out or started within Gooch's term. Staunton 
was named in honor of his wife, who was Lady 
Staunton. Goochland County was named for 
him. 

It was Governor Robert Dinwiddle who, in 
1753, discovered a young man named George 
Washington. Of Dinwiddle we shall hear again. 
And Dinwiddle County will not let us forget him. 

One of the last and one of the best-loved colonial 
governors was Lord Botetourt. He came to 
represent the king in 1768, but by that time the 
spirit of independence was so strong in Virginia, 
as well as in some of the other colonies, that he had 
a difficult situation to meet. He tried to be loyal 
to the king, but at the same time he saw that the 
colonists were entitled to the rights they were 
claiming. He died before the Revolution came 
on — before Virginia and the other colonies de- 
clared themselves fr-ee and independent states ; 
but in the long struggle for liberty the people 
counted Botetourt on their side. A rich county 
of Virginia still bears his name, and there is a statue 
of him on the campus of William and Mary College. 

In all, no less than eight Virginia counties were 
named after kings' governors. Five of the eight 



THE KINGS' GOVERNORS 6i 

we have already mentioned : Berkeley, Culpeper, 
Goochland, Dinwiddle, and Botetourt. Two of 
the others are Spotsylvania, for Spotswood, and 
Fauquier. Francis Fauquier was governor from 
1758 to 1768. The eighth one was Dunmore. 
Lord Dunmore was the last of the kings' governors 
in Virginia ; and after the people had fallen out 
with him so thoroughly, as we shall hear farther 
on, they refused to call a county by his name any 
longer, and, thenceforth, what was first Dunmore 
County has been known by the beautiful Indian 
name, Shenandoah. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The English colonies in what are now the United States 
were of three kinds : (i) Charter, (2) Royal, (3) Propri- 
etary. 

2. A charter colony received from the king a written state- 
ment of privileges, a sort of constitution, under which it 
governed itself in large measure. 

3. A royal colony was sometimes allowed some degree 
of self-government, but it was directly under the control of 
the king, who appointed the governors. 

4. A proprietary colony was given over by the king into 
the hands of a landlord, or proprietor. The proprietor was 
a sort of owner of the colony and appointed the governors or 
acted as governor himself. 

5. Virginia was a charter colony till 1624. After that 
she was a royal colony most of the time till 1776, when she 
declared herself an independent state. 

6. Many times before 1776 the royal governors had trouble 



62 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

to keep down the growing spirit of independence. The royal 
governors in other colonies also had the same trouble. 

7. At least eight Virginia counties were named in honor of 
kings' governors. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; sketches of 
Smith, Yeardley, Berkeley, and Spotswood. 

Long: Virginia County Names ; pages 135-151. 

Maury : Young People's History of Virginia ; pages 64- 
74- 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia; pages 270-284. 
Wertenbaker : Virginia Under the Stuarts; chapters 
III and IV. 

Suggestion. — It might be worth while to have the class 
discuss such questions as the following : 

1 . Was Governor Nicholson justified in moving the capital 
away from Jamestown ? 

2. Should Botetourt have sided with the people or with 
the king? 

3. Was it necessary to change the name of Dunmore 
County .f' There is still a Dunmore Street in the city of 
Norfolk, and another in Williamsburg. 



CHAPTER VIII 
"THE OLD DOMINION" 

Virginia is often called the Old Dominion. 
To explain how she got this name is the purpose 
of this chapter. But to do this we must first tell 
of some great events that took place in England. 
Let us go back, therefore, to the year 1642 and 
make a beginning there. 

In 1642 a terrible war broke out in England. 
It is known in history as the Civil War. But we 
must be careful to distinguish it from the Civil 
War in our own country. It is called a civil war 
because it was limited to England. It was a 
conflict between different factions of the same 
country, or state. 

In the English Civil War the king — King 
Charles I — and his friends were on one side ; 
on the other side were the leaders of Parliament 
and their friends. For many years the two parties 
had been quarreling sharply. The war started in 
the fierce battle of Edgehill in October, 1642. 

Over what were they quarreling ? 

Two things — two big questions : government 
and religion. 

63 



64 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



King Charles I, like his father, James I, be- 
lieved that the king ought to be allowed to rule as 
he pleased, without being required to consult 
Parliament. Parliament, on the contrary, de- 
manded to be heard and declared that the king 

by himself had no 
right to tax the peo- 
ple or to set aside 
the laws. 

So they differed on 
government. 

In religion they 
differed just as 
sharply. Religious 
differences had been 
making trouble in 
England for many 
years. Before the 
time of Queen Eliza- 
beth and Sir Walter 
Raleigh the church 
people had taken 
One party was called 
Catholic, the other Protestant. Then a division 
began to appear among the Protestants. Some of 
them wanted to change the forms of worship and 
the organization of the church. Those who advo- 
cated such changes were nicknamed Puritans. The 
Puritans, therefore, were Protestants who wanted 




CHARLES I 



sides in two great parties. 



"THE OLD DOMINION" 65 

to make the differences between Catholics and 
Protestants still wider than they were. 

King Charles and his friends were Protestants, 
but not Puritans. They could not agree with the 
Puritans. But by the year 1642 the Puritans 
were very strong in Parliament and had to be 
reckoned with. They were strong and they were 
hard fighters. 

Thus, we see. King Charles and his friends 
dift'ered with the other party, the Puritan party 
that controlled Parliament, on both government 
and religion. 

Nicknames became famous in those days. King 
Charles and his friends were called Cavaliers. 
This was perhaps because many of them had fine 
horses and were gallant riders. The leaders of 
Parliament and their friends were called Round- 
heads. This was due to the fact that most of 
them cut their hair somewhat shorter than the 
Cavalier style. The Cavaliers allowed their hair 
to grow so long that it hung down over their 
shoulders. The Roundheads sheared off their 
hair just above their shoulders. 

The war was loiig and bloody ; but after about 
seven years had passed the Cavaliers were beaten 
and the king was put to death. He was beheaded 
in the year 1649. 

Then many of the Cavaliers left England. They 
could not endure Roundhead rule. Hundreds of 



66 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

them came to Virginia. So many came that 
Virginia became a sort of CavaHer colony. 
There always had been a few Puritans in Vir- 
ginia, but after 1649 they had to keep quiet. 
Soon they were outnumbered by the CavaUers 
perhaps ten to one, and the Cavahers would not 
allow anybody to speak against the king, even 
after he had been executed. 

One of the Cavaliers who fled from England 
was a young man named Charles. He went to 
Holland. The Cavaliers in Virginia were anxious 
to have him come to them, for he was the king's 
son. They invited him to come to Virginia and to 
be king here. He did not come but he remembered 
the invitation with gratitude. 

Later, feeling in England changed, and Parliament 
became willing to have a king again ; so young 
Charles in Holland received another invitation. 
This one he accepted. Back to England he went 
and there was crowned king — King Charles II. 

But even before he was crowned king in England 
he had been proclaimed king in Virginia. Thus 
there was some ground for the claim that Virginia 
was his older dominion — older than England. 
Possibly Charles himself spoke of Virginia as his 
"old dominion." At any rate, from that day 
down to the present, Virginia has been familiarly 
termed the Old Dominion. 

The coronation of young Charles took place in 



THE OLD DOMINION" 



^1 



the year 1660. The event is known in history as 
the Restoration. In that year the monarchy was 
restored. 

Sir WilHam Berkeley was governor in Virginia 
when Charles I was executed and for two or three 
years longer ; but in 1652 
Parliament, which was 
then under the control 
of Oliver Cromwell, sent 
over some ships of war to 
look after the Virginia 
Cavaliers. Up the river 
toward Jamestown they 
came. Berkeley and his 
men got ready to fight, 
but after representatives 
of both sides had come 
together and talked matters over an agreement was 
reached peaceably. The Virginians agreed to 
recognize the authority of Cromwell and Par- 
liament, but they were to be allowed to manage 
their own affairs very much in their own way. 
Berkeley retired from the governor's office and 
was not governor again till 1660. In the mean- 
time the governors were elected by the House of 
Burgesses or were appointed by Cromwell. The 
latter was a real king, though he was not called a 
king. In 1658 he died. Then it was not long 
till the Restoration took place. 




OLIVER CROMWELL 



68 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Charles II was king from 1660 to 1685 — 
twenty-five years ; and Berkeley, after he was 
restored in 1660, was king's governor for sixteen 
years. This we learned in the preceding chapter. 
Next we shall have the story of Bacon's Rebellion ; 
for the Old Dominion, like Qld England, was ever 
ready to stand up for her rights. 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Civil war in England overthrew King Charles I because 
he tried to be an absolute monarch. 

2. Government and religion were the two big questions 
over which the Puritan Parliament quarreled with the king. 

3. The Puritans and others who fought against the king 
were nicknamed Roundheads. The king and his friends 
were called Cavaliers. 

4. After the king was executed in 1649 many of the Cava- 
liers came to Virginia. This migration gave the king's friends 
a large majority in Virginia. 

5. Soon the Cavaliers in Virginia invited young Charles, 
the kmg's son, to come to Virginia and be kmg. It was 
because of this loyalty to him that Virginia was called the 
Old Dominion. 

6. The kingship was restored in England in 1660. Young 
Charles was made King Charles II. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 56-64. 
Maury: Young People's History of Virginia; pages 

77-79- 



"THE OLD DOMINION" 69 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 207- 
222. 

Smithey: History of Virginia ; pages 71-79. 

Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 86-96. 

Wertenbaker: Virginia Under the Stuarts ; Chapter IV. 

Note. — Explain what Parliament is upon the first occur- 
rence of the term. One may say : Parliament is the law- 
making body of Great Britain. It corresponds to our Con- 
gress. One house of Parliament is elected by the people 
and is called the House of Commons. The other is made 
up of barons and bishops and is called the House of Lords. 
It was the House of Commons, especially, that quarreled 
with the Stuart kings. 



CHAPTER IX 
BACON'S REBELLION 

In the year 1676 there was sound of battle In 
Virginia. Much it meant to different persons and 
groups of people far and near. To the king's 
governor it meant defiance. To the hostile 
Indians it meant defeat. To many brave Vir- 
ginians who dared to stand for justice it meant 
death. Even to the haughty king across the 
seas it sounded a note of warning. 

Most of the time the early settlers in Virginia 
had no serious troubles with the Indians. Twice, 
however, the latter had risen up in force and tried 
to drive the white men out of the land. The first 
time was in 1622, when about 350 whites were 
killed. The second time was in 1644, when the 
number of settlers slain was about 500. Both 
massacres were directed, it seems, by that fierce 
enemy with the long name : Opechancanough. 

By 1644 the savage chief was very old and 
hardly able to walk. This may explain why, 
when Governor Berkeley led a troop of cavalry 
against the red men, the wily old enemy was 
captured. He was led to Jamestown, where the 

70 



BACON'S REBELLION 71 

governor treated him kindly, but he was killed 
by a cowardly guard who shot him in the 
back. 

After 1644 the whites and the Indians had no 
notable difficulties till 1675. Then small sparks 
kindled great fires. Some Indians in Stafford 
County, just across the river from Fredericksburg, 
stole some pigs from a white man. Then after 
one or two Indians had been shot and the Indians 
in turn had killed a settler or two, the whole north 
country was aroused. The white men of Virginia 
and Maryland joined forces against the savages, 
and some messengers of the Indians who came 
to the English camps were treacherously put to 
death. Then the fighting men of tribe after 
tribe painted their faces and went upon the war 
path. From the Potomac to the James they 
swept down toward the settlements ; and south 
of the James, on the Meherrin, the Nottoway, and 
the Appomattox, their war whoops were heard. 
In a single day in January, 1676, more than thirty 
settlers were killed. 

"Why does not Governor Berkeley do something 
to drive back the Indians.?" 

This question was on many tongues. 

As one attack after another was reported, the 
-frontier settlers became anxious. Then they grew 
angry ; for still the governor did nothing worth 
talking about to protect them. 



72 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

"He feels safe enough, away down there at 
Jamestown, I suppose," said one. 

"He was prompt enough in 1644," said another ; 
"he soon caught old Opechancanough." 

" But that was thirty-odd years ago," said a 
third. "The governor now is getting old him- 
self." 

"He is not too old to love money," somebody 
else remarked. "He is not too old to make money 
trading with the Indians." 

At that remark a great many people began to 
think. The governor was making money through 
an extensive trade with the Indians. If he made 
war upon them he would lose his business with 
them. Was it possible that the governor was so 
mean and selfish as to put his own gain above the 
safety and welfare of the people .? Some men 
thought so. Some began to say so. 

The white population of Virginia at this time 
was 40,000 or more ; and some of the bold settlers 
had pushed far up towards the Blue Ridge moun- 
tains. 

Not only the frontiersmen whose homes were 
in most danger began to get angry with the 
governor, but also some of the rich planters far 
down on the tidewaters. The latter for a number 
of years had been much annoyed by the navigation 
laws. These were laws made in England requiring 
the colonists to send their goods abroad in English 



BACON'S REBELLION 73 

ships and sell them to English merchants. These 
laws were much disliked, and Governor Berkeley 
was in a measure blamed for them. They were 
the king's laws ; Berkeley was the king's governor. 

And the way Berkeley was handling the House 
of Burgesses was also very provoking. He had 
brought it about that certain poor men in the 
colony could not vote ; and he had kept one set 
of men in the House of Burgesses for a long time 
— because, people declared, that set of men up- 
held him. 

Soon some of the bolder spirits of the colony 
were ready to raise an army and fight the Indians 
whether the governor gave the word or not. A 
few of them were almost angry enough to fight 
the old governor himself. 

Just then Nathaniel Bacon took the lead. 
Bacon was a young educated Englishman who 
lived up the James at Curl's Neck, about fifteen 
miles below the site of Richmond. He was a 
cousin, perhaps, of that Nathaniel Bacon who 
acted as governor of Virginia in 1689. He must 
have had some land that is now covered by parts 
of Richmond, for at a certain place in the city one 
may now see a tablet marking Bacon's Quarter. 

In 1676 Nathaniel Bacon was just about as old 
as John Srnith was when he came to Virginia. 
And in some ways he was much like John Smith. 
Although he had been in the colony only four or 



74 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

five years he was already well known. Like 
John Smith, he must have been a natural leader 
of men. Some of the planters and frontiersmen, 
who were ready to march against the Indians, 
whether the governor gave them leave or not, 
looked to Bacon to lead them. And after one or 
two men on Bacon's own land had been killed he 
said, ''I'm ready!" But at the same time he 
expected the governor to approve the cam- 
paign. He led a force against the Indians but 
he also sent a messenger to Jamestown asking the 
governor to grant him a commission : that is, 
to appoint him as a military officer. 

This was in the early spring of 1676. 

But Governor Berkeley refused Bacon's re- 
quest. He did not grant him a commission. 
Instead, he declared him a rebel. Even after an 
election had been held and Bacon had been elected 
to the House of Burgesses, Berkeley was still un- 
willing to authorize the settlers, under the leader- 
ship of Bacon, to act in their own defense. 

Bacon at first seemed about ready to submit to 
the governor's will, but it was not long till he and 
the governor were open enemies. At one time 
Bacon and his soldiers marched to the governor's 
house and compelled him to sign a commission. 
Later they had a battle or two around Jamestown, 
and the village was burned by Bacon's men. 
Some of them lived in Jamestown, but they set 



BACON'S REBELLION 75 

fire to their own houses. They seemed to think 
that it was better to lose Jamestown than to lose 
the fight for justice. They did not want the town 
to serve as a shelter for tyrants any longer. 
Besides, some of them may have been anxious 
to have the capital built at a more healthful place. 

One day in August Bacon's followers met to- 
gether at Middle Plantation, the very place to 
which the capital was moved in 1698, and there 
they took an oath to stand by Bacon in the fight 
against Berkeley and the Indians. For by that 
time Bacon and his men were involved in a 
double war. Berkeley had friends and he was 
as brave as he was stubborn. Besides, he had 
the king behind him — or thought he had. Bacon 
and his associates, therefore, would have had a big 
job on their hands just to stand up against the 
governor. But out in the forests were the blood- 
thirsty savages. Bacon and his men had to 
fight them too. 

And they did fight them efi^ectively. On one 
of the Richmond hills they met the red men and 
killed a hundred and fifty of them. The little 
stream at the foot of the hill has ever since been 
called Bloody Run. Down on the Appomattox, 
near the place where Petersburg now stands, they 
broke the power of another tribe. Even across 
the Nottoway and the Meherrin, down to the 
Roanoke, they chased the scattering bands. So 



76 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

thoroughly were the Indians beaten that they 
were never able afterwards to give much trouble 
to the whites east of the Blue Ridge. 

All through the spring and summer, far into the 
autumn, the noise of strife was in the land. Then 
one day in October, in Gloucester County, 
at the house of a friend, Nathaniel Bacon died. 
In the hard campaigns he had worn himself out and 
had caught a fever. It was probably the same 
kind of fever that had been killing people at 
Jamestown since 1607. 

The fall of Bacon was a deathblow to the 
revolution. Bacon's Rebellion we call it. Gov- 
ernor Berkeley called it the "Great Rebellion." 
Bacon's followers scattered. They were hunted 
like beasts. Most of those that Berkeley caught 
he hanged, especially such as had acted as leaders 
in any way. More than twenty men in all were 
executed as rebels and traitors. 

Berkeley no doubt thought that he would please 
the king, but he was disappointed. The king 
thought that Berkeley was too severe. Even 
the king must have felt that Bacon and his men 
had just cause for some of the claims they made. 
At any rate, many of the best men of England 
felt that Berkeley rather than Bacon was the 
traitor. They knew very well that a ruler should 
think first of the people's rights. And some of 
them, no doubt, looked upon Nathaniel Bacon 



BACON'S REBELLION ij 

much as their fathers in England had looked upon 
Simon de Montfort, or as their descendants just a 
hundred years later looked upon George Wash- 
ington. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in Virginia in 
1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon and other prominent young 
men, against the king's governor. 

2. The main causes were these : 

(i) The governor had taken away the vote from some 
of the Virginians. 

(2) He had not called an election of Burgesses In ten 
years or more. 

(3) He supported the navigation laws, which were 
very burdensome to the colonists. 

(4) He failed to defend the people against the Indians. 

3. Bacon and his men began by defending themselves 
and their neighbors against the Indians. This led to war 
with the governor too. 

4. Bacon's death In the fall of 1676 ended the w^ar. 

5. Sir William Berkeley, the governor, was unduly harsh 
in punishing Bacon's men. Even the king censured him. 

6. Bacon stood for the same principles, largely, that Wash- 
ington stood for a century later. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 99-108. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 65-81. 
Maglll : First Book In Virginia History; pages 40-55. 
Maury: Young People's History of Virginia; pages 83- 
92. 



78 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia ; pages 223-238. 

Smithey : History of Virginia; pages 81-91. 

Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 97-105. 

Wertenbaker : Virginia Under the Stuarts; chapters V 
and VI. 

Note. — Bacon's Rebellion is such a fascinating subject 
that one is in danger of spending too much time on it. Do 
not fail to make clear what it signified : the growing spirit 
of independence among the people. It showed that they 
would not long submit to what they felt to be unjust treat- 
ment. It gave them notions of self-government that they 
could not forget. 



CHAPTER X 
THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 

In Chapter V we learned that the Virginians 
as early as 1619 were planning a college. The 
Indian massacre of 1622 blighted their plans. 
It was many years before a college was actually 
opened in Virginia, though a desire for something 
of the kind must have been in the minds of some 
of the people all the time. A number of the 
planters were well educated, and at least a few 
schools were maintained in spite of the fact that 
Sir William Berkeley and perhaps some of the other 
royal governors were not in favor of educating 
the people at large. Some of the wealthy men of 
the colony sent their sons to England to school. 

But in 1693, as we saw in Chapter VII, a college 
was founded in Virginia, at Middle Plantation. 
The king and queen in England at that time were 
William and Mary. They favored the college, so 
it was named in their honor. William and Mary 
College has had a splendid history. It taught 
religion and law as well as science and arts in 
colonial days and thus helped to strengthen the 
spirit of liberty and justice. Many of the great 

79 



80 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

men who were leaders In the days when our nation 
was being built had been trained at William and 
Mary. In later times, as we shall see, it has sent 
out many leaders to our public schools. 

In 1660 the House of Burgesses passed an act 
favoring a college. . That was more than thirty 
years before the college was really established. 
But in 1690 a young preacher. Rev. James Blair, 
began 'in earnest to work for the college. He 
worked with the people in general, with the House 
of Burgesses in particular, and then he went to 
England and laid the matter before the king and 
queen. The result we have already seen. Soon 
the college was opened. 

It was located close to Bruton Parish Church at 
Middle Plantation. And only five years later 
(1698), as we learned in Chapter VII, the colonial 
capital was moved from Jamestown to the same 
place. About the same time the name of the village 
was changed to Williamsburg (this in honor of the 
king) and a splendid plan for a town was laid out. 
It was the purpose of the governor and others 
to make Williamsburg a city. The main street, 
called Duke of Gloucester Street, runs east and 
west. It is about a hundred feet wide and one 
mile long. At the west end stands William and 
Mary College. At the east end stood, for many 
years, the capitol — the building in which the 
House of Burgesses met and where the business 



THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 81 

of the colonial government centered. There in 
the ground to-day one may trace the foundations 
of the old building. A small monument marks 
the spot. 

From 1698 to 1780 Williamsburg was the 
capital of Virginia. Until 1705, when the capitol 




,\V1I.II\M AMI MARY COLLEGE, MAIN BUILDING 

was finished, the House of Burgesses met in the 
college building. This shows how closely the 
college and the colonial government were asso- 
ciated. Governor Nicholson did much to help the 
college, though after a time he quarreled fiercely 
with Rev. Mr. Blair. The latter was first presi- 



82 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

dent of the college and served as such for fifty 
years. At first, and for many years thereafter, 
voung Indians were taught in some of the 
departments of WilHam and Mary. They were 
trained to do missionary work among their own 
people. 

Three early Presidents of the United States 
were students of William and Mary College. 
They were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, 
and John Tyler. John Marshall, the famous 
chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, 
also studied law there. In old Williamsburg 
such men as Alexander Spotswood, Patrick Henry, 
George Washington, George Mason, George 
Wythe, and Richard Henry Lee were familiar 
figures. It was from William and Mary College 
that certificates were issued for many years to 
the young surveyors of Virginia, the men like 
Peter Jefferson, George Washington, Thomas 
Lewis, and others, who marked the boundary lines 
of states, counties, and plantations. 

It may be that some boys and girls who read 
this book know something of the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society. It is a famous literary society, with 
branches, or chapters, in many of the leading 
colleges and universities of America. But per- 
haps only a few know that this society was founded 
at William and Mary College. It was organized 
there in 1776. From there it was carried to Har- 



THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 83 



vard and Yale, and so it grew as the decades 
passed. The original minute book of the society 
may still be seen in the library of William and 
Mary College. 

As one walks down Duke of Gloucester Street 
from the college towards the place where the old 
capltol stood in the days of Washington, Henry, 
and Jefferson, he passes 
many historic objects. 
Soon he comes to Bru- 
ton Church, on the left- 
hand side. In it is the 
font from which it is said 
Pocahontas was bap- 
tized. A little farther 
back from the street is 
the Wythe House, the 
old home of George 
Wythe, the great teacher 
of law. Wythe County, 
Virginia, was named for 
him. On a little farther, 
on the same side of the street, is the old court 
house ; and almost opposite, on the right-hand side 
of the street, is the historic powder horn. This is 
a queer brick structure, having eight sides and a 
high pointed roof. It was the center of some 
stirring events at the beginning of the Revolu- 
tionary War. 




THE HISTORIC POWDER HORN AT WIL- 
LIAMSBURG. IN IT THE POWDER 
BELONGING TO THE COLONY WAS 
STORED 



84 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Almost at the east end of Duke of Gloucester 
Street, on the left-hand side, is the place where 
Raleigh Tavern used to stand. In that old tavern 
many important meetings were held in olden days 
by men who were famous or later became so. 
And then, as one comes to the end of the wide 
street, he sees in front of him the heavy stone 
which marks the spot where the old capitol stood, 
in which the House of Burgesses met for nearly 
eighty years, and in which Patrick Henry delivered 
his "Cgesar-Brutus" speech. Of this we shall 
hear again. 

One other house, a quaint little cottage, we must 
not overlook in Williamsburg. Far and wide 
it is known as the ''Audrey House." It is one ot 
the places that Miss Mary Johnston had in mind 
when she wrote her well-known book, Audrey, 
a romance of colonial Virginia. 

In front of the Audrey House is the Palace 
Green ; and near by is the site of the palace in 
which the kings' governors used to live. The 
place is now occupied by a school in which many 
boys and girls, almost every day, study the his- 
tory of their country and other subjects that help 
to make good citizens. The broad Palace Green 
is their playground. 

One day when the author of this story was look- 
ing at a monument that stands beside the school- 
house a crowd of little girls climbed up on the iron 



I 



THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY 85 

fence around the monument and there, perched 
Hke crows, begged him to take their picture with 
a camera he was carrying in his hand. 

During the past thirty years WilUam and Mary 
College has made a specialty of training teachers 
for the public schools of Virginia. Many of the 
superintendents of schools in the state to-day are 
graduates of William and Mary. In 1914 there 
were 118 graduate teachers from William and Mary 
in our state schools. In 191 5 the number was 
108; in 1916 it was 104; and in 1917 it was iii. 
In 1 91 8 young women were first admitted to 
William and Mary as students. That event will 
no doubt mark the beginning of a new epoch for 
the historic school. 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. William and Mary College was founded at Middle 
Plantation, eight miles north of Jamestown, in 1693. 

2. About the same time or soon afterwards the place was 
named Williamsburg and was laid out as a city. 

3. From 1698 to 1780 Williamsburg was the capital of 
Virginia. 

4. Among the famous men who were trained at William 
and Mary College were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, 
John Marshall, and John Tyler. 

5. At William and Mary in 1776 was established the 
Phi Beta Kappa Society. 

6. In recent years William and Mary has done a great 
work training teachers for the public schools. 



86 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 1 10-122. 

Magill: First Book in Virginia History; pages 84-89. 

Maury: Young People's History of Virginia; pages 94- 

loi. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 239- 

252- 

Heatwole : History of Education in Virginia ; pages 69-99/ 
Tyler : Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital. 

Suggestion. — Have the class write down in parallel 
columns the words "capital" and "capitol" each as often 
as it occurs in this chapter, and then see that the distinction 
between the two is clearly understood. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSESHOE 

In Chapter VII we learned that one of the good 
royal governors of early Virginia was Alexander 
Spotswood. He served as governor for twelve 
years — from 1710 to 1722. Within that time 
and later his name became firmly linked in 
Virginia with two well-known metals : iron and 
gold. He had horseshoes made of both : iron 
ones for horses, gold ones for men. 

The first man mentioned in the Bible as a master 
of iron-workers was Tubal Cain. Spotswood was 
the first great iron-master of Virginia ; therefore 
he is often called the Tubal Cain of Virginia. He 
had iron furnaces erected at different places, but 
especially at Germanna, on the Rapidan River. 

The Rapidan is a branch of the Rappahannock, 
and Germanna was only fifteen or twenty miles 
above Fredericksburg. Spotswood had thousands 
of acres of land in what are now Spotsylvania, 
Orange, and Culpeper counties ; and at various 
places on his land he found good iron ore. He 
made so much iron after a while that he shipped 
some of it to Great Britain. 

87 



88 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Most of the time while Spotswood was governor 
he, of course, had his headquarters at WilHams- 
burg, the colonial capital ; and one day in the late 
summer of 17 16 the lawn in front of his house 
was the scene of great excitement. The governor 
was going on a long journey, and a dozen or more 
gentlemen, good friends of the governor, were 
going with him. To be sure, they took with them 
attendants and servants, and later they were 




A gentleman's coach, in such a coach, perhaps, governor 

SPOTSWOOD RODE 

joined by a dozen forest rangers and some friendly 
Indians, who served as guides. So the party at 
last probably numbered forty or fifty men in all. 

The governor started out in his coach, but most 
of the party were on horseback. They carried 
guns and perhaps swords and pistols. There 
were rolls of blankets and bundles of provisions, 
with pack mules to carry them. 

Where was the governor going ^ To Fred- 
ericksburg ? Farther than that. To Germanna ? 
Farther than Germanna. He was going clear up 



THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSESHOE 89 

to the Blue Ridge mountains — and across them, 
too ! That, in those days, was a big undertaking ; 
for none of the bold settlers had yet pushed over 
the Blue Ridge, and there were only narrow 
Indian trails, paths of wild animals, and the wind- 
ing beds of rocky streams to follow. 

A hard undertaking it was, but the governor 
wanted to satisfy himself as to what was to be 
seen west of the Blue Ridge. The strange tales 
that he had heard only made him the more de- 
termined to go and see for himself. So, with his 
gallant company, he waved good-by to Williams- 
burg and set off toward the northwest. It was 
the 20th of August, 1 7 16. 

In five days the party reached Germanna, the 
governor's village of iron-workers. There five 
days were spent in resting and in securing the 
rangers and the Indian guides, and in making 
other preparations for the expedition to the 
mountains. 

On August 29th they left Germanna, but it 
was the eighth day afterwards (September 5th) 
when the top of the Blue Ridge was reached. 
And they had many adventures on the way. 
The governor now rode horseback like the others, 
having left his coach below Germanna. One 
man's horse was bitten by a rattlesnake — many 
rattlers were seen. Bears and foxes, too, seemed 
plentiful. Turkeys and deer were frequently shot. 



90 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

One day a man shot a deer from his horse, and his 
horse jumped so suddenly that the man was 
thrown roughly upon the ground. Two or three 
of the party became sick with measles, but the 
advance continued. 

It is probable that the explorers followed up 
the course of the Rapidan River. If so, they 
passed near the place where Stanardsville is now 
located and came to the top of the Blue Ridge 
at or near Swift Run Gap. From the summit of 
the mountain they looked down upon the great 




A FLINT-LOCK. MUSKET. WITH GUNS SUCH AS THIS THE KNIGHTS 
OF THE HORSESHOE KILLED DEER AND BEARS — " 

Shenandoah Valley, stretching away fifty miles 
on either hand. Below them, close to the moun- 
tain, lay the places where Port Republic, Elkton, 
Shenandoah, and other towns may now be seen. 
Ten miles out in the broad valley a long mountain 
ran down from the northeast, stopping suddenly 
right in front of them. If they asked the name 
of this mountain the Indians probably said, 
"Massanutten." Twenty miles farther west, at 
the far side of the valley, other mountain ranges 
could be seen, piled against the sky, if the day was 
fair. They were the first Alleghany ranges. 

It is possible to see all these things and many 



THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSESHOE 91 

others from Swift Run Gap, for the gap is only 
a sHght depression in the great Blue Ridge ; and 
one standing in the gap is up high enough to look 
across the top of the Massanutten Mountain and 
to see the Alleghanies far beyond. Besides, as we 
have noted, the Massanutten ends almost opposite 
Swift Run Gap, leaving a clear view across the 
valley on the left-hand side, as one faces west. 

Down into the valley the noisy company went. 
By evening they were at the river. The next 
day they crossed the river, calling It the Euphrates. 
But the Indian name, Shenandoah, is much more 
beautiful, and It means '* Daughter of the Stars." 

They crossed the river at a rather deep place, 
where it was about eighty yards wide. One or 
two men, possibly more, went in swimming. 
Some went fishing, using grasshoppers for bait. 
They caught some perch and some chubs. Others 
went hunting and killed some deer and turkeys. 
The governor took possession of the country In 
the name of King George I of England. 

On the 7th of September the governor and his 
party recrossed the Ridge, and ten days later 
they were back at Williamsburg. 

But what about the horseshoes of gold ? 

They were suggested by horseshoes of Iron. 
In the flat, sandy lands of tidewater the horses 
had not been shod ; but In the stony country near 
the mountains and in the mountains their hoofs 



92 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

needed protection. So, before leaving Germanna 
on the way up, the horses ot the governor's party 
had been shod with iron. After the expedition 
was over the governor ordered from England some 
little horseshoes of gold. These he gave to his 
friends who had gone with him to the valley, and 
thenceforth he called those men ''Knights of the 
Horseshoe." 

It was only a few years after Spotswood crossed 
the Blue Ridge till other men from eastern Vir- 
ginia began to cross and to settle on the west side. 
But most of the early settlers of the valley were 
German and Scotch-Irish people who crossed the 
Potomac River and came up into the valley from 
Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In 1716 Governor Spotswood led the first expedition 
from eastern Virginia across the Blue Ridge into the Shenan- 
doah Valley. 

2. It was not many 3'ears thereafter till the valley began 
to attract settlers, some from eastern Virginia, many from 
Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

3. The gentlemen w^ho went with Spotswood across the 
Blue Ridge were dubbed "Knights of the Horseshoe," and 
to each of them the governor gave a little horseshoe of gold. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 123-134. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 82-93. 



THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSESHOE 93 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia; pages 299-303. 
Fontaine: Journal of John Fontaine; pages 281-292 in 
"Memoirs of a Huguenot Family," Putnam's reprint. 
Scott: History of Orange County ; pages 98-113. 



CHAPTER XII 
WILLIAM BYRD AND PETER JONES 

William Byrd was a leading man in Virginia 
for many years. He was born at Westover, a 
fine home on the James River, in 1674. At the 
time of Bacon's Rebelhon, therefore, he was only 
two years old. He died in 1744, when Thomas 
Jefferson was one year old and George Washington 
was twelve. 

William Byrd had a famous friend and a famous 
daughter. The friend was Alexander Spotswood. 
His daughter's name was Evelyn. She was a 
young woman who was very attractive and who 
had many friends. 

But William Byrd did not have to depend on 
his friends or even on his daughter to make him 
a name in history. He did things for himself. 
Perhaps we should say he did things for others. 
Thus he made for himself a place of honor in old 
Virginia. 

What are some of the things that William Byrd 
did .? 

For one thing, he wrote books. In this he 
reminds us of John Smith. John Smith, you 
remember, was the author of the first English 

94 



WILLIAM BYRD AND PETER JONES 95 

book written in Virginia. Well, William Byrd 
was the first famous Virginia author born in 
Virginia. He not only wrote books, he also 
bought books and put them into his library. At 
last he had all together about 4000 volumes. That 
was a large collection for a private library in those 
days, especially in a new country like this. 

William Byrd was also a soldier. He was a 
colonel of militia. And from time to time he 




WESTOVER, THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM BYRD 

was an important official in the colonial govern- 
ment. For many years he served the people in 
offices of one sort or another. And he was a 
surveyor too. We should not forget this ; for 
he, with Peter Jefferson (the father of Thomas 
Jefferson) and others, surveyed the long straight 
line that runs between Virginia and North Car- 
olina. In all probability he got his surveyor's 
license from William and Mary College, though 
he had been educated in England. 



96 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

But the particular achievement of WilHam 
Byrd that we shall notice in this chapter was the 
founding of two cities. Those two cities are 
well known to-day as Richmond and Petersburg. 
In 1733 William Byrd laid them both out for 
settlement. He owned at that time the land where 
Richmond stands and it is quite probable that 
he also owned at least some of the land where 
Petersburg was started. 

By consulting the map of Virginia you will 
observe that Richmond is at the head of tide- 
water on the James, Petersburg at the head of 
tidewater on the Appomattox. This means, for 
one thing, that large boats coming up those rivers 
must stop at those points. So warehouses 
and wharves are needed there. William Byrd 
saw this. He said that nature had intended those 
places for markets. He knew that towns always 
grow up at such places. Therefore he took time 
by the forelock and began to sell lots at the falls 
of the James and at the falls of the Appomattox. 
In the Virginia Gazette, published first in 1736, 
was an advertisement of Byrd's new town of 
Richmond, inviting people to come and live there. 

The Gazette was published at Williamsburg and 
was Virginia's first newspaper. 

Richmond, it is said, was named after the English 
town of Richmond, which is located on the Thames 
River not far from London. Petersburg gets its 



WILLIAM BYRD AND PETER JONES 97 

name from Peter Jones. Thus does Peter Jones 
come into our story and link his name with that 
of Wilham Byrd. 

The Appomattox Indians, prior to Bacon's 
RebelHon, had a village at or near the site of 
Petersburg ; and later Peter Jones, a' white man, 
had a trading station there. In the city of Peters- 
burg to-day, down near the river, one may see an 
old stone house that marks the trading post of 
Peter Jones. On the old house is a tablet, placed 
there by the Daughters of the American Revo- 
lution, telling something of its history. For 
some years the place was called Peter's Point, 
then Petersburg. 

Richmond and Petersburg are both interesting 
and historic cities. Especially in the days of 
1 861 to 1865, during the great Civil War, they 
became known all over the world. Richmond 
was the capital of the Confederate States, while 
much of the hard fighting of the last year of the 
war took place around Petersburg. During the 
recent war Camp Lee, one of the huge military 
camps in which our troops were assembled, was 
located near Petersburg. 

Almost exactly at the same time that W^illiam 
Byrd was laying out Petersburg and Richmond, 
two other famous Virginia cities were being started 
with just a cabin or two apiece. These were 
Staunton and Winchester, in the great valley. 



98 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

In the preceding chapter we learned that it was 
not many years after Spotswood and the Knights 
of the Horseshoe crossed the Blue Ridge till the 
Shenandoah Valley began to be settled. We also 
learned that most of the early settlers of the 
valley were Germans and Scotch-Irish from Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland. The Germans settled 
mainly in the lower .parts of the valley, from Har- 
per's Ferry up to Swift Run Gap, and their chief 
leaders seem to have been Jost Hite and Jacob 
Stover. The Scotch-Irish, for the most part, 
settled in the upper sections of the valley, between 
Swift Run Gap and the Natural Bridge (near 
Lexington). The first of them located at or near 
the site of Staunton. Their leader was John 
Lewis. 

Adam Miller and some other Germans were in 
the valley as early as 1727; but the larger settle- 
ments began about 1732, the very year George 
Washington was born. In 1732 and 1733, there- 
fore, when William Byrd was laying out Peters- 
burg and Richmond, Jost Hite and his com- 
panions were building their first homes at or near 
Winchester, and John Lewis and his sons, with 
some of their friends, were hewing logs and 
quarrying stones among the hills that still guard 
Staunton. 

Jost Hite's old home may be seen to-day a few 
miles southwest of Winchester, as one comes up 



WILLIAM BYRD AND PETER JONES 99 

the Valley Pike. Many of the Hites and Bow- 
mans, descendants of Jost Hite, were prominent 
in colonial and Revolutionary days. And only a 
mile or two east of Staunton one may see the old 
home and the grave of John Lewis. A part of 
the house he built there, old Fort Lewis, is still 




luKl LLWKS, NEAR .- 



standing ; and, like much of the sturdy pioneer's 
work, it bids fair to stand for years to come. 
His stalwart sons, Thomas, Andrew, William, and 
Charles, were great leaders after him. They 
were friends and associates of Washington, and 
the statue of Andrew Lewis is one of those that 
surround the statue of Washington on Capitol 
Square in Richmond. 



100 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Winchester, in early times, was for several years 
the headquarters of Washington. Staunton, in 
recent years, has gained renown because Woodrow 
Wilson was born there. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. William Byrd, the first famous Virginia author born 
in Virginia, was the founder of Richmond and Petersburg. 

2. Peter Jones had a trading station on the Appomattox, 
and Petersburg was named in his honor. 

3. In 1732 and 1733, while Byrd was laying off Richmond 
and Petersburg, Winchester and Staunton were being started. 

4. Germans under Jost Hite began the settlements around 
Shawnee Spring, where Winchester soon grew up. The 
Scotch-Irish under John Lewis settled among the hills where 
Staunton now stands. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 135-149. 
Magill : History of Virginia; pages 133-139- 

TEACHERS READINGS 

Cartmell : Shenandoah Valley Pioneers; pages 126-146. 
Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia ; pages 299-312. 
Waddell : Annals of Augusta; pages 24-35. 

Suggestion. — Divide the class into four groups, i, 2, 3, 
4. Let group i make a list of notable things about Rich- 
mond. In like manner let the other groups make studies 
of Petersburg, Winchester, and Staunton, respectively. 



CHAPTER XIII 

WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR 

In Clarke County, Virginia, about ten miles 
west of the Blue Ridge and about twelve miles 
southeast of Winchester, is Greenway Court. It 
is a fine old homestead and it has a notable 
history. On the large lawn stand a number of 
gnarled trees. The smokehouse is an old block- 
house, used long ago for defense against the 
Indians. Near by is an old stone building called 
"The Office." On the hill is an ancient grave- 
yard ; and down the road a mile or so, at the cross- 
roads, is a tall white post. 

Greenway Court, from 1748 to 1782, was the 
home of Thomas Fairfax — Lord Fairfax. When 
he first came to live there the country was all 
very thickly wooded, with only a narrow road cut 
here and there through the forests. In order that 
people might be able to find the way to Green- 
way Court, Lord Fairfax set up a tall post at the 
crossroads. Perhaps he put a signboard on it, 
or perhaps he whitewashed it. 

When the first post decayed another was put 
in its place, and in time the second one was sue- 



I02 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



ceeded by a third, and so on down to the present. 
To-day, right there in the middle of the cross- 
roads, stands a tall white post, and the place has 
been known as White Post for many years. 
Around it a village has grown up and it too is 




"the office," at greenway court 



known as White Post. A visitor going to Green- 
way Court to-day will probably turn off the main 
road at White Post and go south a mile, just as 
visitors did in Lord Fairfax's day. Only now the 
forests, most of them, are cut away, and open 
fields are seen instead. 



WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR 103 

At Greenway Court young George Washington 
was employed on his first big job. For two or 
three years he worked for Lord Fairfax as an 
explorer and a surveyor. Lord Fairfax owned 
all the land for miles and miles around Greenway 
Court in all directions, and he hired Washington 
to help explore it and lay it off in farms ; for 
settlers were then coming rapidly into the northern 
parts of Virginia, on both sides of the Blue Ridge, 
and they wanted to buy land. Washington at 
this time was only sixteen, but he was tall and 
trustworthy. Fairfax knew that he could be 
trusted. In the stone office, then a brand new 
building, Fairfax probably kept the maps that 
Washington made, and met the men who came to 
buy land. No doubt he and young Washington 
had many a long talk in that ofl[ice as the years 
passed. 

Lord Fairfax's great tract of land was called 
the Northern Neck. It began at the Chesapeake 
Bay, ran up northwest between the Potomac 
and the Rappahannock, crossed the Blue Ridge, 
crossed the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the first 
ranges of the Alleghany Mountains, and extended 
some distance into what is now West Virginia. 
It included Westmoreland County, the county in 
which Washington had been born ; Stafford 
County, in which he had grown up ; Mt. Vernon, 
his home after 1752; Alexandria, the interesting 



I04 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

old town in which he used to attend church ; 
Fairfax Court House, in which one may see his 
will to-day ; Winchester, in Frederick County, 
where he built a fort ; and, of course, White Post 
and Greenway Court, now in Clarke County, 
By looking on a map one may now find twenty- 
one counties of Virginia and West Virginia that 
lie within the Northern Neck. 

This enables us to see that young Washington 
had indeed a big job on his hands when he set 
out to explore and survey Lord Fairfax's land. 
To be sure, he did not have to concern himself 
so much with the tracts east of the Blue Ridge. 
They were already pretty well known. His 
task was to spy out the lands that lay west of the 
Blue Ridge : the lower Shenandoah Valley, where 
Winchester, Berryville, Front Royal, Luray, 
Woodstock, and Strasburg are now located ; and 
those farther down, around Charles Town, 
Shepherdstown, and Martinsburg. 

The last three towns are now in West Virginia. 

Also he had to push across the first Alleghany 
ranges ^and explore the lands along the Cacapon 
River ; then go on farther west to the South 
Branch of the Potomac and follow up its course, 
passing the places where Romney, Moorefield, 
and other West Virginia towns now stand. 

Washington kept a diary of his exploring trips 
and in it he speaks of visiting some of the sections 



WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR 105 

of country just mentioned. For example, he 
tells how, on March 14, 1748, he and his compan- 
ions sent their baggage to Captain Hite's, near 
Winchester. However, he does not say Win- 
chester ; he says " Fredericktown." He also tells 
how, on the 20th of the same month, his party 
swam their horses across the Potomac River to 
the Maryland side, when the river was five or 
six feet higher than usual. 

Just how they did it is somewhat uncertain. 
The account he gives is not very clear ; but prob- 
ably the men went across in a canoe and made 
the horses swim after them. Five days later they 
came back across the Potomac in the same way. 

One day they met a party of thirty-odd Indians 
coming from war, but having only one scalp. 
After the Indians were warmed up with a little 
"fire water" they gave a war dance. A large 
space was cleared, a big fire was kindled in the 
center, and the braves sat down in a circle around 
the fire. Then an orator got up and made a 
grand speech, telling the braves how to carry on 
the dance. As he finished the best dancer jumped 
up, acting as if he had just been waked from sleep, 
and ran and jumped about the ring in a most 
amusing manner. He was followed by the others. 
Then began their music, which was made with a 
drum and a rattle. The drum was a pot half full 
of water with a deerskin stretched tight over it. 



io6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

The rattle was a dry gourd with some shot in 
it, decorated with a piece of horse's tail tied to 
it. One Indian kept drumming and another 
kept shaking the rattle all the time the dance 
went on. 

Much of the time during March and April, 
1748, Washington and his companions had to 
travel and work in the mud and rain. Once in a 
while they stayed overnight in the cabin of some 
settler, but most of the time they camped out. 
One night Washington narrowly escaped burning 
to death. The wind was blowing and a spark from 
the campfire caught in the straw on which he 
was sleeping. One of the men awoke and saw 
the fire just in time. Another night the tent 
got so full of smoke that the party had to go 
outside. 

One day they surveyed 1500 acres of land 
and shot a wild turkey that weighed twenty 
pounds. Another day they shot two wild turkeys. 

At first Washington perhaps did not himself do 
much surveying. He only observed and directed 
the work. But in the summer of 1749 he got a 
license from William and Mary College and from 
that time on he no doubt did a good deal of 
surveying himself. In many parts of Virginia 
and West Virginia to-day are lines that he laid 
off, and they are generally found accurate and re- 
liable. In some of the old courthouses are books 



WASHINGTON AS A SURVEYOR 107 

containing maps of his surveys, and they all show 
careful, painstaking work. 

All this life in the wild country, exploring forests, 
fording rivers, meeting Indians, camping out, 
following rough trails over the mountains and 
through the valleys, was a rich experience for the 
tall, strong youth of sixteen and seventeen. It 
was not many years till it all proved of much 
value to him, as we shall see. 

One day Washington lost his surveyor's chain. 
Here is the proof of it. Near Berryville some 
years ago a surveyor was running over a line that 
Washington had surveyed. At the corner . of 
the field a stone had been set up, but as years had 
passed and the ground each spring had thawed, 
the stone had settled over to one side. So it 
needed to be reset. As the men dug out the 
hole and got down about a foot and a half they 
found several rusty links of an old surveyor's 
chain. Attached to one of the links was a metal 
tag, and on it were the initials ''G. W. " 

Just how the old chain came to be there no 
one knows. It may have been worn out and 
Washington may therefore have buried it inten- 
tionally under that cornerstone. He may have 
dropped it into the hole by accident ; or some mis- 
chievous helper of his may have put it there just 
to play a trick on him. 



io8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. From 1748 to 1 75 1 George Washington was a surveyor 
and an explorer for Lord Fairfax. 

2. At that time Lord Fairfax had his home and his land 
office at Greenway Court. 

3. Most of Washington's work for Lord Fairfax was done 
in the lower Shenandoah Valley, along the South Branch of 
the Potomac, and along the Cacapon River. 

4. His work as a surveyor was so well done that it can be 
relied upon even to-day. 

5. His experience as a surveyor and explorer prepared 
him for the next important work he was called upon to do. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 94-109. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 56-69. 

TEACHERS READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 178-197. 
Wilson : George Washington ; pages 45-57. 

Suggestion. — • A good class project at this point would 
be the making of a large map showing the location of each 
place mentioned in this chapter. 



CHAPTER XIV 
WASHINGTON AS A SOLDIER 

In Chapter VII we mentioned Governor Din- 
widdle because, as it is said, he discovered a young 
man named George Washington. But we have 
just seen that Washington was first discovered 
by Lord Fairfax. Fairfax found Washington at 
sixteen and put him to the test. Then, at twenty- 
one, Washington was sent for by Governor Din- 
widdie, who put him to a harder test. If he had 
not made good for Fairfax it is doubtful whether 
Dinwiddie ever would have heard of him. Cer- 
tainly he would not have invited him to Williams- 
burg. 

Dinwiddie served as king's governor in Virginia 
from 1752 to 1758. At that time the French 
and the English were having their final struggle 
for the Ohio Valley and other parts of North 
America. The English from Virginia and other 
colonies were settling in the Ohio Valley and the 
French were building forts there to keep them out. 
Under these conditions Governor Dinwiddie de- 
cided to send a messenger to the French com- 
mander to ask him to withdraw his forces. 

109 



no A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

The messenger he selected was George Wash- 
ington. The latter was still a surveyor but he 
had also become a major in the local militia. It 
was only a year or two till he was known all over 
the country. If Dinwiddle did not discover him 
he at least put him into the field of fame. But 
even there Washington still had to make his own 
mark. During the next six or eight years he 
perhaps had little time for surveying farms- — he 
had to be so busy, as a soldier. 

It was the last day of October, 1753, when young 
Major Washington left Williamsburg, headed 
northwest, carrying Governor Dinwiddle's mes- 
sage. He must have started early and he must 
have ridden fast, for the next day he reached 
Fredericksburg, ninety or a hundred miles away. 
We may be sure that he did not make such good 
time all the way, for soon he struck the mountains 
and the unbridged rivers, and the brushy, tangled 
forests. 

From Fredericksburg he went up to Alexandria, 
thence across by Winchester and Wills Creek. 
Wills Creek is at or near Cumberland, Mary- 
land. Thence he pushed on northwest through 
western Pennsylvania and, about twenty-four 
days after he had left Williamsburg, he came to the 
place now occupied by the great city of Pittsburgh. 
But he had to go on still farther, for the French 
commander, Pierre, was at a fort up nearly as far 



WASHINGTON AS A SOLDIER iii 

as Lake Erie, at a point more than 500 miles from 
Williamsburg. 

Pierre was polite enough, but he did not prom- 
ise to withdraw the French soldiers from the 
Ohio Valley. So, as Washington set out on his 
return journey to tell Governor Dinwiddle what 
he had seen and heard, it was very plain that 
tHere was going to be war again between the 
French and the English for the control of the 
country. It was not long, therefore, till Washing- 
ton was on the Ohio again, followed by Virginia 
troops. 

On the way out to see Pierre, Washington had 
several companions. One was Vanbraam, an 
interpreter. But Vanbraam could do other things 
besides talk French. He had taught young Wash- 
ington how to use a sword. Another was Captain 
Gist, a famous scout and guide. Coming back, 
it seems that Washington and Gist traveled much 
of the way alone. And it was then that the 
greatest hardships were encountered. It was 
midwinter. The horses gave out, and they could * 
not have kept on swimming the rivers anyhow, 
for the rivers were full of ice. So Washington 
and Gist did much walking, carrying some rather 
heavy packs. Some of the Indians they met were 
friendly, some were not. One day an Indian 
shot at Washington and barely missed him. 

One cold evening at sunset Washington and 



112 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



Gist came to a river and tried to cross it on a 
raft. Before they got half-way over, the ice 
jammed so hard against the raft that Washing- 
ton's pole was jerked out of his hand and he 
was thrown into the cold water, which was about 
ten feet deep. But he managed to catch hold 



'*% 






"%iHl|h-: 




WASHINGTON S RETURN FROM THE FRENCH FORTS 



of the raft and thus kept from drowning. Soon 
they had to leave the raft and climb out on an 
island in- the river. There they stayed till morn- 
ing, almost freezing, but at daybreak they suc- 
ceeded in reaching the other side of the river 
on the ice. 

On the second day of January they reached 



WASHINGTON AS A SOLDIER 113 

Captain Gist's home on the Monongahela River, 
and on the 7th they were again at Wills Creek 
(Cumberland). On the i6th Washington was 
back at W^illiamsburg, where he called upon the 
governor and gave an account of his expedition. 

Washington, as was his habit, kept a journal 
of his trip. Captain Gist also kept one ; and it 
is from these journals that we get our information 
as to what took place from day to day. 

As already indicated, Washington went soon 
again to the Ohio Valley, and with soldiers. The 
very next summer (1754) he went out with a 
small force which was finally compelled to sur- 
render at a place called Fort Necessity. In the 
summer of 1755 he went out once more, this time 
with a rather large army. W^ashington was not 
in command of this army, but, as it turned out, 
many persons would have been glad if he had 
been in command. 

This army of 1755 was in command of General 
Braddock, an officer who had lately come over 
from England. He was brave, but conceited and 
headstrong. He knew a good deal about fighting 
in Europe, but he knew practically nothing about 
fighting the Indians and their French allies in the 
forests of America. The result was that one day 
the French and the Indians fell upon Braddock's 
army from the thickets and cut it to pieces, 
mortally wounding Braddock himself. If it had 



114 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

not been for Washington and his Virginia rangers 
the whole army would probably have been de- 
stroyed. 

Braddock's defeat, a famous incident in 
American history, occurred on July 9, 1755. 
Braddock had almost reached a French fort that 
he was hoping to capture, but as it happened the 
British did not succeed in capturing that fort till 
1758. It was Fort Duquesne. After the English 
got it they called it Fort Pitt. It stood where 
the city of Pittsburgh now stands. 

For several years after Braddock's defeat Wash- 
ington had his headquarters at Winchester, where 
he built a fort and did the best he could to de- 
fend the settlers west of Winchester from the 
Indians and the French. The fort that he built 
was called Fort Loudoun, and parts of the old 
walls may still be seen in Winchester on Fort 
Hill. 

In 1759 the British captured Quebec in Canada 
and in 1763 the war came to an end, with the 
British victorious. This war in Europe was 
called the Seven Years' War ; here in America it is 
known as the French and Indian War. It was 
the last struggle in the long contest between the 
French and the English for the control of North 
America. From that time on the English were in 
control nearly everywhere east of the Mississippi 
River. 



WASHINGTON AS A SOLDIER 115 

In this war young George Washington proved 
himself a good soldier, fighting under the Union 
Jack. It was only twelve years after this that he 
was called upon again to be a soldier, under a new 
flag. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Washington's work for Lord Fairfax as explorer and 
surveyor prepared him to go on an important mission for 
Governor Dinwiddie. 

2. In 1753 Dinwiddie sent him to Pierre, the French com- 
mander near Lake Erie, demanding that the French troops 
be withdrawn from the Ohio Valley. 

3. The French did not withdraw, so war broke out again 
between the French and the English. Many of the Indians 
helped the French. 

4. This war, which lasted from 1754 to 1763, is known in 
American history as the French and Indian War. It gave 
the English control in North America. 

5. In this war Washington took part. He surrendered 
Fort Necessity in 1754; he saved part of Braddock's army 
near Fort Duquesne in iJS'S ' ^"<I ^^ later built Fort Loudoun 
at Winchester. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 1 10-139. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 69-83. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Dickson: American History; pages 132-150. 
Wilson: George Washington ; pages 57-95. 



CHAPTER XV 
LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS 

By life on the plantations we mean especially 
colonial life in eastern Virginia. Tidewater, 
Middle Virginia, and Piedmont all lie east of the 
Blue Ridge. It was in those sections that English 
settlements and civilization began, and it was 
there also that most of the great plantations of 
colonial days were located. 

Land in Virginia for a long time was so plentiful 
and so cheap that the plantations, many of them, 
were very large. A farm of a thousand acres was 
only ordinary, for some of the estates along the 
James, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and the 
York contained several thousand acres apiece. 
To be sure, the majority of the plantations were 
smaller, containing perhaps only four hundred 
or five hundred acres each. 

On a small plantation the master usually kept 
a few negro slaves or indentured white servants. 
On a large plantation there were, as a rule, many 
slaves and servants, sometimes a hundred or 
more. The owner of a great estate would live 
in a large house, while the slaves would live 

ii6 



LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS 117 

near by in small houses. The group of servant 
houses was generally called "the quarters." Some 
of the slaves waited in the master's house ; some 
cooked in the kitchen ; some looked after the 
stable and the horses. One was perhaps a coach- 
man, another a blacksmith, another a carpenter, 
and so on ; but the majority, as a rule, worked in 
the fields, planting and tending the tobacco and 
corn, hauling the tobacco to market, and clearing 
new ground for the next crop. 

At first the settlers' houses were mere log cabins ; 
but before long the cabins were replaced with 
larger houses of hewn or sawn timbers. These 
were sometimes weatherboarded on the outside 
and ceiled on the inside. The old parish house in 
Warwick County was a story and a half high, was 
weatherboarded, and had two tall brick chimneys 
at one end. The house in New Kent County in 
which Thomas Jefferson was married was two 
stories high, was weatherboarded, and had a 
chimney at each end. 

As time went on and the planters grew wealthy 
many of them built larger and more costly houses. 
Brandon, the home of the Harrisons, Westover, 
the home of the Byrds, and Monticello, the home 
of Thomas JefTerson, were all large brick houses. 
Brandon and Westover were on the James River; 
Monticello was up in Piedmont, perched on one 
of the red hills of Albemarle County. Patrick 



ii8 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



Henry's house in Charlotte County was a fine 
wooden structure. So was Washington's famous 
house at Mt. Vernon, in Fairfax County. The 
house in which Washington was born (in West- 
moreland County) and the one in which he grew 




MOUNT VERNON, WASHINGTON S HOME AFTER I752 

Up (in Stafford County), were both wooden build- 
ings and both were rather small, though the 
Washingtons were well-to-do people. 

A few of the big houses contained as many as 
fifteen or twenty rooms apiece ; and many of 
them had ten or a dozen. Besides a living room, 



I 



bIFE OiN THE PLANTATIONS 119 

a dinmg room, wide hails, and bedrooms for the 
famil}^ there were numerous guest chambers in 
which the visitors, who came often and stayed 
long, were made comJortable. The Virginia 
planters were generous and iiospitable. When 
thcv v/cnt visiting they were in no hurry, and v/hen 



Cuart'-sy of ilr. Cli^^o.; 
OLD TIMr PLANTATION QUARTER.S 



they had gurL^Ls tiiey expected them to remain 
several days or a week. 

In the big houses the bedsteads and other 
furniture were often of mahogany. The dishes 
on the tables w^ere sometimes of silver, but more 
frequently of pewter.- Pewter polished bright was 
almost as fine looking as silver. In the " quarters " 
and in the homes of the poor, the dishes, what 



I20 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA ' 

few they had, were of iron, earthenware, or wood. 
Knives and spoons were common, but forks were 
very rare. A Mrs. Digges of York County had 
nine damask tablecloths and thirty-six napkins 
of the same material. In the absence of forks 
many napkins were needed. 

In visiting and traveling the planters and their 
families often went in boats ; but horseback riding, 
for business, pleasure, or sport, was also common. 
As time went on and the narrow paths were made 
wide enough for wagons, more coaches were used. 
We recall that Governor Spotswood went in a 
coach from Williamsburg toward Germanna in 
1716. 

Often two horses were not enough to drag a 
heavy coach over the bad roads. As one to-day 
looks at Washington's heavy old coach in the 
shed at Mt. Vernon, he is inclined to pity the 
horses that had to draw it. Sometimes two or 
three servants rode along on horseback as at- 
tendants upon the coach. When the planters 
rode horseback they usually rode fast ; hence 
fast riding in those days was termed the "planter's 
pace." 

Tenpins and cards were favorite games. Danc- 
ing, acting, and horse-racing, especially after 1660, 
were common sports. In Northampton County 
was a famous race track known as Smith's Field. 
The best-known race track in the Northern Neck 



LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS 121 

was in Westmoreland County and was called the 
Coan Race Course. In Richmond County was 
one named Willoughby's Old Field. Much of 
the horse-racing was on Saturdays because, no 
doubt, Saturday afternoon was usually kept as 
a half holiday. 

A good deal of time was spent in hunting and 
fishing. From the very early days of the colony 
much of the food supply had been obtained 
from the rivers, creeks, and bays, in which fish 
of various kinds abounded. In hunting, both 
animals and birds were killed. Partridges, 
pigeons, and wild turkeys were plentiful in the 
forests, and near the coasts wild geese and ducks 
often dotted the waters for miles. But perhaps 
the planters had their keenest sport when they 
mounted their horses, blew horns for their dogs, 
and set out to chase the wily foxes, the timid 
hares, or the fierce wolves. Often a deer was 
killed, and once in a while a bear or a panther. 

On Sunday everybody went to church. Some 
went to worship, some to show their new clothes, 
some to see their neighbors, and the others went 
because they had to go ; for there were laws, 
much of the time, requiring attendance upon 
church. 

On muster days, when the soldiers (militia) 
came together to drill, nearly every person — 
man, woman, and child — went to town. And 



122 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

court days, too, were times for big crowds. On 
court day nearly every man had "some business" 
at the county-seat. "Nearly every man," we 
say ; for we are told that, as a rule, the women of 
eastern Virginia in colonial times did not go to 
town on court days. Perhaps it was because 
the fun and the fights and the wrestling matches 
that often took place were rather too rough — not 
good sport for ladies. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In colonial days the plantations of eastern Virginia 
were often ver}^ large and plentifully supplied with servants. 

2. Most of thi' houses were built of wood. As time went 
on and wealth increased, more houses were built of brick. 
Now and then one was built of stone. 

3. The planters and their families were generous and 
hospitable. Tliey expected their guests to stay as long as 
possible. 

4. They traveled mainly in boats and on horseback. As 
roads were built coaches were introduced. 

5. Hunting, fishing, and horse-racing were favorite sports. 
Thus the people lived much out of doors. 

6. Sundays, court days, and muster days brought large 
crowds together. Funerals and weddings also drew people 
for many miles. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Maury : Young People's History of Virginia ; pages 
111-120. 

Smithey : History of Virgmia } pages 107-115. 



LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS 123 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Bruce : Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury ; pages 157-244. 

Chandler and Thames : Colonial Virginia ; pages 285-298. 

Cooke: Virginia; pages 364-374. 

Page : The Old Dominion ; Her Making and Her Manners ; 
pages 134-152. 



CHAPTER XVI 

LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 

By life in the mountains we mean colonial life 
in western Virginia — in the great valley and other 
sections west of the Blue Ridge. It was in those 
sections that wars with the Indians continued 
longest and the hard conditions of pioneer life 
lasted for many years after wealth and ease had 
come to eastern Virginia. 

In the valley and other regions west of the Blue 
Ridge the farms weye smaller, as a rule, and the 
slaves and servants were fewer than in the dis- 
tricts east of the Ridge. In the eastern counties 
most of the people were English. In the western 
valleys were many Germans, and they frequently 
did not own slaves. If a family did not own 
slaves or have indentured servants a small farm 
of a hundred or two hundred acres was enough. 
It was all that the members of the family them- 
selves could work. The Scotch-Irish were also 
numerous in the western sections of the colony. 
They kept more slaves than the Germans did, 
but, even among them, small farms rather than 
large plantations were the rule. 



LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 



125 



The houses at fir^t were mere log cabins, similar 
to the first ones in Tidewater and elsewhere, but 
as time went on they were replaced with larger 



X 




OLD CHURCH IN THE MOUNTAINS BUILT OF LOGS AND WEATHER-BOARDED 

ones of hewn or sawn logs. These were sometimes 
weatherboarded and ceiled. Now and then a 
brick house was erected, and frequently one of 



126 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

stone. In many places to-day one may see old 
limestone houses, still firm and strong, -hat were 
built in Indian tim.es. ' The Hite house near 
Winchester, the Harrison house in Harrisonburg, 
the church at Fort Defiance, and the lower story 
of ^ )rt Lewis near Staunton are examples of such 
structures. 

' The German settlers soqn began to build large 
barns. Huge barns with wide threshing floors and 
numerous stables underneath are still a feature of 
the valley landscape. 

Many people west of the Blue Ridge raised 
tobacco, but it was never grown there upon such 
a large scale as east of the mountains. Corn, 
wheat, cattle, and hogs soon became the chief 
products of the valley and other sections west. 
"Hog and hominy" were generally accepted as 
the main articles of food. Sheep were raised 
partly for food but chiefly for wool. Wool and 
flax were both woven into cloth on simple hand 
looms, for deerskin, though i: was used for 
clothing by the Indians and by some of the white 
people, was not comfortable in cold or rainy 
weather. 

For a long time, however, the pioneers wore 
deerskin moccasins. They were easy on the feet 
and easy to make. But they did not last long 
on rough trails, and they quickly soaked through 
in rain or slush. Accordingly, many of the 



LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 



127 



settlers suffered from rheumatism. Sometimes 
in cold weather a hunter or a scout would stulf 
his moccasins with leaves' or deer's hair to keep his 
feet warm. Instead of a coat he wore a hunting 
shirt. This was usually made of linsey, loose and 
long, reaching nearly to the knees. It was open 
in front and was 
belted around the 
waist, lapping over 
a foot or more when 
belted. The roomy 
bosom of the hunt- 
ing shirt served as a 
wallet, and in it were 
often carried a chunk 
of bread, a piece of 
jerked beef, a bunch 
of tow for wiping 
rifle barrels, and almost anything else that the 
hunter .or soldier might need. To the belt in 
front was often attached a bullet bag. At the 
right side vv^as a tomahawk, and at the left side 
was suspended a knife in a leather sheath. 

Attached to the hunting shirt at the neck was 
a large cape, which was sometimes handsomely 
fringed with raveled cloth of a different color. 
A coonskin cap and a pair of leggings were also 
familiar pieces of the hunter's outfit. 

The bowie knife was then unknown. Most 





A 


^. p 


^ 


\ 






-'1 

> 






■i 





OLD-TIME SPINNING WHEEL 



128 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

of the knives carried by scouts, hunters, and 
Indian-fighters were doubtless ordinary butcher 
knives. But the blades of these were long and 
keen. They were so much in evidence that the 
Indians soon spoke of the Virginians as "Long 
Knives." 

In the mountains there was probably very 
little fox-chasing on horseback. The people there 
did not hunt much for sport. With them hunt- 
ing was a serious business, either to get food or 
to kill off the wolves, bears, wildcats, and other 
animals that were dangerous to pigs, lambs, and 
calves. Furs and pelts were used as money, being 
exchanged for rifles, salt, and iron. The autumn 
and early winter were the seasons for hunting 
deer. Bears and fur-bearing animals were hunted 
all winter and often during part of the spring. 
A common saying was, " Fur is good in every 
month that has an R in its name." 

The frontier forts were usually large inclosures, 
built of logs, and situated close to a spring or other 
source of water. Often a fort might contain a 
dozen or more strong cabins, and inside the 
stockade was room enough for all the cattle and 
horses of the neighborhood. As a rule the people 
would stay on their farms most of the time, but 
when news would come that the Indians were 
on the warpath nearly every family would move 
quickly into the fort. Sometimes in the middle 



LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS 129 

of the night a messenger would come and tap at 
the window. Quickly the father and the mother 
would awake, preparing to hasten to the fort. 
But no candle was lighted and no noise was made. 
If there was a small child that might cry upon 
waking, every precaution was taken to keep it 
asleep till the fort was reached. Now and then 
a family would not heed the warning, thinking 
it a false alarm ; and they sometimes fell easy 
victims to the savage foe. 

Many are the stories of surprise attack and ruth- 
less massacre. Abb's Valley in Tazewell County, 
Kerr's Creek in Rockbridge County, Fort Seybert 
in Pendleton County, and Bloody Ford in Page 
County are only a few of the places where settlers 
were killed or captured. White men who fell 
into the hands of the Indians were usually killed 
at once or tortured to death later in the far-away 
villages of the red men. Children and women 
were frequently held in captivity for months or 
years. Isabel Stockton of Frederick County, 
Hannah Dennis of Botetourt County, and Mary 
Draper Inglis of Montgomery County all had 
thrilling experiences as captives, and all were 
fortunate enough, after longer or shorter periods, 
to return to their friends at home. 

Some of the scouts and Indian-fighters became 
famous all along the border, and their names are 
still known in history. Such were Christopher 



130 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Gist, Ebenezer Zane, Lewis Wetzel, Charles Lewis, 
and John Sevier. Daniel Boone figured chiefly 
in Kentucky, but Kentucky was then a part of 
western Virginia ; and he also did a good deal 
of hunting and exploring in what is now Virginia. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In colonial days the people of western Virginia had 
smaller farms and fewer servants than the people of eastern 
Virginia. 

2. West of the Blue Ridge the barns were often larger 
than the houses and many of the houses were built of stone. 

3. Some tobacco was grown in the western regions, but 
the chief crops w^ere corn and wheat. Cattle and hogs were 
numerous. 

4. Many of the wh.ite men dressed much like the Indians, 
and in their hunting and fighting they also imitated the 
Indians. 

5. Some of the scouts and Indian-fighters became very 
famous. Among such were Christopher Gist, Ebenezer 
Zane, Lewis Wetzel, Charles Lewis, and John Sevier. Daniel 
Boone also figured prominently in western Virginia. 

PUPIL S READINGS 

Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 219-223. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 96-1 11. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 304- 
322. 

Kercheval : History of the Valley of Virginia ; pages 23 S- 
286. 

Summers: History of Southwest Virginia ; pages 1 17-129, 



PART II— VIRGINIA AND THE 
REVOLUTION 

CHAPTER XVII 

PATRICK HENRY AND THE PARSONS 

We now come in our story to a great movement 
which is known as the American Revolution. It 
covered a period of twenty years or more, beginning 
soon after 1760 and continuing till 1783. It was 
at first a long quarrel of a dozen years, then a long 
war of eight years. In the quarrel and in the war 
Virginia and other English colonies in America 
were trying to get more freedom in government. 

They succeeded. When the war ended in 1783 
they were no longer called colonies. They were 
acknowledged to be independent states. They 
really secured more than they at first aimed at. 
At first they sought only more freedom under the 
British flag, but finally they won independence 
under a flag of their own. 

In the Revolution Virginia took a leading part ; 
and among her valiant sons were many whose 
names became immortal. In this chapter and the 
half dozen that follow next we shall call the names 



132 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



of a few of those immortals and learn some of the 
things they did. 

First, let us learn of Patrick Henry. He was 
a great orator, and he spoke out for freedom in 
Virginia long before most of his friends would have 

dared to speak, even 
if they could have 
spoken as well as he. 
Henry was born in 
the county of Han- 
over, Virginia, in the 
year 1736. As a boy 
and even as a young 
man of twenty-odd 
he seemed lazy and 
shiftless. Many per- 
sons regarded him as 
a failure, even after 
he had studied law 
and had beengranted 
a license to practice 
in the courts. 

But then one day 
a great opportunity came knocking on Henry's 
door, and he proved that he was able to meet it. 
It was in 1763. A much-talked-of case was to 
be tried in the little courthouse of Hanover. On 
one side were the Episcopal pastors of Virginia ; 
on the other side were various groups of people. 




Patrick; henry, the orator 



PATRICK HENRY AND THE PARSONS i33 

On the side of the pastors was King George III, 
over in England ; on the side of the people were 
a majority of the House of Burgesses. On the 
pastors' side were the best lawyers of Virginia ; 
on the people's side was Patrick Henry — young 
Patrick Henry, just twenty-seven : Patrick Henry, 
the failure ! 

For many years a pastor's salary in Virginia 
had been 16,000 pounds of tobacco. This, at two 
pence a pound, was worth, let us say, ^665. But 
one year there was a crop failure and the price of 
tobacco went up to six pence a pound. At that 
price 16,000 pounds were worth ^1995. 

Then, to help out people who owed debts, the 
House of Burgesses enacted that all debts payable 
in tobacco might be paid in money, two pence of 
money counting for a pound of tobacco. Thus a 
planter could sell his tobacco for money, getting 
six pence a pound for it, and then use the money 
to pay his debts, giving only two pence for each 
pound of tobacco he owed. 

Money, by the year 1763, was more plentiful 
in the colonies than it had been in earlier times. 

According to the law of the Burgesses, the 
pastors and others who expected to receive tobacco 
worth six pence a pound were to be treated as if 
it were worth only the old price — two pence a 
pound. 

The pastors said it was not fair, and King 



134 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

George said so too. He declared that the pastors 
should be given 16,000 pounds of tobacco, as 
usual, or a sum of money that 16,000 pounds 
svould amount to at six pence a pound. 

On the strength of the king's decision the pastors 
brought suit in the Hanover court for their old 
salaries at the new price of tobacco. Patrick 
Henry spoke against the pastors — he spoke 
against the king. He spoke so boldly and so well 
that he surprised all who heard him ; and as a 
result of his eloquence the jury gave a decision 
that really was against the pastors and the king. 

It is quite probable that the pastors had as 
much justice on their side as the people and the 
House of Burgesses had on their side ; but the 
simple truth is that many of the Virginians and 
many of the people in the other colonies were 
tired of having the king interfere with their laws. 
They had come to the point where they wanted 
self-government ; and Pa-trick Henry expressed 
their feeling so clearly that they were ready to 
follow him. 

Thus the Parsons' Case, which is famous in our 
history, gave a chance for the people of Virginia, 
through Patrick Henry, to say some things that 
they had felt like saying many times before, and 
to do some things for freedom, for self-govern- 
ment, that they had wanted to do before. They 
had shown the same feeling in Bacon's Rebellion, 



PATRICK HENRY AND THE PARSONS 135 

in the Tobacco Rebellion, and in other crises. 
The Parsons' Case gave them a new opportunity 
to say in a new way that they wanted to manage 
their own affairs.- They had become conscious 
of great strength in themselves. The colonies 
were nearly full-grown and they felt it. 

Soon after his speech against the king in the 
Parsons' Case young Patrick Henry was elected 
a member of the House of Burgesses and sent to 
Williamsburg. There, in 1765, he spoke vehe- 
mently against the Stamp Act, a law of Parlia- 
ment that the colonists did not like. Some 
years later, in St. John's Church, Richmond, he 
made another famous address in which he declared 
that war between England and the colonies was 
sure to come. Later still, when war did come and 
Virginia declared herself an independent state, 
Patrick Henry became her first governor. 

Virginia and the United States still honor 
Patrick Henry. His statue is one of those that 
surround the great statue of Washington on 
Capitol Square in Richmond ; and two counties 
of the state, Patrick and Henry, are named after 
him. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

I. The American Revolution was first a long quarrel 
between the colonies, on the one hand, and the king's 
governors, the king himself, and Parliament, on the other 
hand. Then the quarrel became a war. 



136 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

2. As a result of the war the EngHsh colonies in a large 
part of North America became independent states. 

3. Patrick Henry was one of the great leaders in Virginia 
in the long revolutionary movement. 

4. The Parsons' Case gave him his first great opportunity 
to show his eloquence and his power of leadership. 

5. There were other great leaders in other colonies whose 
work was similar to that of Henry in Virginia. 

PUPILS READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 165-178. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 158-179. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 1 16-128, 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Beard _and Bagley : History of the American People; 
pages 107-128. 

Cooke: Virginia; pages 375-389. 



• CHAPTER XVIII 




p^ 



t^v 



ANDREW LEWIS AND LORD DUNMORE 

Andrew Lewis was one of the stalwart sons 
of John Lewis, the pioneer of Augusta County 
(see Chapter XII). 
He and his brother 
Charles, who is men- 
tioned in Chapter 
XVI, were two of 
the most noted In- 
dian-fighters of west- 
ern Virginia. 

Andrew was not 
the oldest of his 
father's sons, but he 
was born in Ireland 
before the family 
came to America. 
He was about twenty 
years older than Pat- 
rick Henry and about 
sixteen years older 
than George Wash- 
ington. In 1758 he 
helped to take from 




andrew lewis, the tall frontiersman, 
"clad in a hunting shirt and lean- 
ing ON A hunter's rifle" i 



137 



138 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

the French and Indians Fort Duquesne, the strong- 
hold that Braddock had failed to capture -in 1755 ; 
and in October, 1774, he commanded a thousand 
Virginia rangers in the battle of Point Pleasant, 
defeating a larger force of Indians and breaking 
their power in all the Ohio Valley. 

Point Pleasant is in the , angle formed by the 
Kanawha River where it joins the Ohio. On the 
battle ground to-day stands the town of Point 
Pleasant, West Virginia. 

By 1774 Lewis was a brigadier general. He was 
then a man of fifty-eight or sixty years of age, 
and his home was near Salem, Virginia, in what 
is now Roanoke County. His brother, Colonel 
Charles Lewis, was killed at Point Pleasant, 
gallantly leading an attack. 

General Lewis not only broke the power of the 
Indians in western Virginia, he also broke the 
power of the last king's governor in all Virginia. 

As we learned in Chapter VII, the last royal, 
governor of Virginia was Lord Dunmore. In less 
than a year after the battle of Point Pleasant the 
Virginians were fighting him, and soon General 
Lewis was their leader. The bold words of 
Patrick Henry were proving true. War between 
the colonies and the king had come, and naturally 
Lord Dunmore stood up for the king. 

Before Lewis took command against Dunmore 
,the latter had seized Norfolk. For a month or 



ANDREW LEWIS AND LORD DUNMORE 139 

two he was in control of the city ; but after his 
men were defeated at Great Bridge, near Norfolk, 
by the Virginians under Colonel William Woodford, 
he was forced to leave the city. In the fighting at 
Norfolk many houses were burned and many 
others were damaged. In that city to-day people 
lead visitors to old St. Paul's Church and point 
out the place where the building was struck by a 
cannon ball fired from one of Lord Dunmore's 
ships. 

When Dunmore left Norfolk he went up the 
Chesapeake Bay to Gwyn's Island. This island 
is at the east side of Mathews County. There, in 
May, 1776, he established himself, having about 
500 men. Some of these, however; were negro 
slaves stolen from the Virginia planters, and 
were not very good soldiers. 

To Mathews County and to Gwyn's Island 
General Lewis led his small army. With cannon 
planted on the sandy shores he fired upon the 
governor's ships and badly crippled some of them. 
Nevertheless, when the attack was renewed the 
next day the governor managed to escape. On 
the island he left many graves and also some un- 
buried corpses. Smallpox had come ahead of 
General Lewis and had perhaps killed more men 
than did cannon balls and rifle bullets. 

Dunmore sailed away from Virginia never to 
return, and with him went the power of the king. 



140 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



Although the war continued for seven or eight 
long years, and although Norfolk and other 
Virginia cities suffered again from time to time, 

the people of Vir- 
ginia thereafter 
elected their own 
governors and made 
their own laws. With 
Patrick Henry as 
first governor and 
Andrew Lewis as one 
of her brave soldiers, 
Virginia made good 
her name as an in- 
dependent state. 

What took place 
in Virginia in 1776 
reminds us very 
much of Bacon's Re- 
bellion in 1 676, when, 
for a time, Governor 
Berkele}^ was ex- 
pelled from James- 
town and the town 
was burned. In many 
ways the two struggles were alike. In both of 
them the people rose up against the king's governor 
because they believed that he was not respecting 
or protecting their rights. In 1776, however, 




THE GRAVE OF ANDREW LEWIS, AT 
SALEM, VIRGINIA 



ANDREW LEWIS AND LORD DUNMORE 141 

Virginia was not alone. In other colonies also 
the royal governors were being driven out, and 
for like reasons. Virginia knew what other 
colonies were doing and they knew what she was 
doing. A dozen or more colonies along the 
Atlantic coast were soon working and fighting 
together. That is the reason, no doubt, why we 
are able to call the movement of 1776 a revolution, 
not a rebellion. A rebellion is an uprising that 
fails. A revolution is an uprising that succeeds. 

For four years or more General Andrew Lewis 
took part in the Revolution in Virginia. Then, 
in 1780, he resigned his command, probably be- 
cause of ill health. On his way homeward, as 
he was passing through Bedford County, he 
became very ill and died. But his body was 
carried on to his home near Salem and buried 
there. A tall monument now marks his grave. 
It stands on a high hill, overlooking the town and 
the beautiful valley. 

And another one of the bronze figures that 
surround the famous statue of Washington on 
Capitol Square in Richmond is that of Andrew 
Lewis. He is seen as a tall frontiersman, clad 
in a hunting shirt and leaning on a hunter's rifle. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

I. Lord Dunmore was the last royal governor of Virginia. 
He was driven out in 1776, soon after the beginning of the 
Revolutionary War. 



142 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

2. Andrew Lewis commanded the Virginia troops that 
drove out Lord Dunmore. 

3. In the preceding wars against the French and the 
Indians Lewis had won renown at Fort Duquesne, Point 
Pleasant, and other places. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 150-164. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 140-153. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Eckenrode : The Revolution in Virginia; pages 1-95. 
Lewis: The Battle of Point Pleasant; pages 40-53. 
Page : The Old Dominion, Her Making and Her Manners ; 
pages 153-197- 



CHAPTER XIX 
WASHINGTON A SOLDIER AGAIN 

In Chapter XIV we saw George Washington a 
soldier in the French and Indian War. That 
war ended in 1763, the very year in which Patrick 
Henry leaped to fame in the Parsons' Case. After 
1763, for a dozen years, Washington was busy 
managing his farms, buying and selling land, 
drilling militia, and serving the people ofVirginia 
as a lawmaker in the House of Burgesses at 
Williamsburg. But all through those dozen years 
were heard the rumblings of a coming storm. 
That storm was the Revolutionary War. And 
when it came, in 1775, Washington was called to 
be a soldier again. 

At Philadelphia was a body of men known as 
the Continental Congress. It was made up of 
delegates from the several colonies in their 
struggle against the king, and it was the general 
governing body of the new states throughout the 
long war of the Revolution and for six years after- 
wards. On June 15, 1775, the Continental Con- 
gress chose Washington commander in chief of the 
American armies, and on July 3, following, he was 

143 



144 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



at Boston taking command. The main army at that 
time was trying to drive the British out of Boston. 
The big elm tree under which Washington stood 
when he took command at Boston may still be seen 
near Harvard University, and it is known as 

Washington's Elm. 

In the army at 
Boston, which was 
made up of men from 
different colonies, 
were other Virginians 
besides Washington. 
For example, Daniel 
Morgan was there at 
the head of a com- 
pany of Virginia 
riflemen. Later in the 
year, when part of 
the army was sent 
against Canada, 
Morgan fought 
bravely at Quebec. 
By 1777 and 1778 he was a colonel and was serv- 
ing gallantly in New York and New Jersey. Two 
or three years later he was a brigadier-general and 
was giving a good account of himself in North 
Carolina and South Carolina. His home was at 
Winchester, where his humble tomb may be seen 
to-day. 




GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN, THE ' THUN- 
DERBOLT OF THE revolution" 



WASHINGTON A SOLDIER AGAIN 145 

Morgan's career will serve to show how soldiers 
of the different colonies were moved about from 
place to place, and over what a wide territory the 
war extended. When we remember that in those 
days there were no railroads, no steamboats, and 
very few good wagon roads, we can understand 
how hard the life of a soldier of the Revolution was. 

Washington did not move about as widely as 
Morgan did, but throughout the whole eight years 
of the war he was commander-in-chief and waged 
many active campaigns. During the first year 
or two most of the fighting was in New England 
and on the borders of Canada. Then for two or 
three years the chief operations were in New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The third 
big stage of the war was in the south — in Georgia, 
South Carolina, and North Carolina. In those 
states from 1778 to 1781 the sound of battle was 
in the air, the British frequently winning. By 
the summer of 1781 a British army, under com- 
mand of Lord Cornwallis, had come up from North 
Carolina into Virginia, where it joined other 
British troops that had come into the state some 
months before through Chesapeake Bay and up 
the James River. 

Washington himself did not go to Georgia and 
the Carolinas. While the heavy fighting was 
taking place there he had to keep watch upon 
the enemy in New Jersey and New York. But 



146 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

when Cornwallis came into Virginia he fell into 
a trap, and he soon found out that Washington 
had an eye on him too. 

In the autumn of 1781, Cornwallis established 
himself at Yorktown. There, with the broad 
James River on his south, the York River on his 
north, and Chesapeake Bay on his east, and with 
his eight thousand soldiers at command, he 
doubtless felt secure. But soon he saw his error. 
General Lafayette, who was then in command of 
the American forces in Virginia, came up from 
the south and west. A fleet of French warships, 
allies of the Americans, came in through Chesa- 
peake Bay ; and General Washington, slipping 
away from the redcoats in New York, came down 
with his veterans on the north and west. 

Cornwallis was surrounded. Manfully he held 
out for two or three weeks, then he surrendered 
with all of his army. The date, October 19, 1781, 
was a great day for Washington. It was a great 
day for America. While the British regulars, 
with sullen faces, were throwing down their 
muskets and their band was playing "The world 
is upside down," Virginia planters and their 
servants were riding wildly up through Tide- 
water and on to the mountains shouting ''Corn- 
wallis is taken !" 

Two or three days later, as some immigrants 
were coming up the Shenandoah Valley from 



WASHINGTON A SOLDIER AGAIN 147 




Maryland, they heard the stirring news at Wood- 
stock. The messengers had reached that point 
by that time, and the people there were pre- 
paring for a great celebration. They celebrated 
all the more heartily when they learned that young 
General Muhlenberg, 
who had left Woodstock 
for the war in 1776, had 
been one of Washing- 
ton's right-hand men at 
Yorktown. 

The war did not end 
with the surrender of 
Cornwallis — it dragged 
on for a year or two 
longer ; but as it turned 
out the victory at York- 
town assured success 
to the American cause. 
And for it all — for the 
freedom that was won, 
for the independence 

that was established — history gives chief praise, 
under Heaven, to Washington. His patience when 
others failed, his fortitude when others despaired, 
his skill and his high nobility of character inspired 
and strengthened his fellow countrymen through 
all the long years till the hopes of a new nation 
were realized. Well, therefore, might General 






A CONTINENTAL SOLDIER. HIS SUIT 
WAS BLUE AND BUFF, WHEN HE 
COULD AFFORD A UNIFORM 



148 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Henry Lee, another great Virginian who fought in 
the Revolution, in honoring Washington speak of 
him as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the 
hearts of his countrymen." 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Washington first proved himself as a soldier in the 
French and Indian War, from 1754 to 1763. 

2. From 1763 to 1775 he was a farmer, a militia officer, 
and a lawmaker in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg. 

3. In 1775 he was appointed by the Continental Congress 
commander-in-chief of the American armies in the war for 
independence. ^ 

4. In October, 1 78 1, he forced General CornwalHs to sur- 
render at Yorktown, Virginia, and victory for the American 
cau^e was soon assured. 

5. History gives Washington chief credit, among all our 
great men, for the success of the Revolution. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 179-197. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 298-334. 
MaglU: First Book in Virginia History; pages 143-152. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Beard and Bagley : History of the American People ; 
pages 136-161. 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 372- 

388- 

Eckenrode : The Revolution in Virginia ; pages 261- 

301. 



CHAPTER XX 
JEFFERSON AND HIS PEN 

Often it has been said that the pen is mightier 
than the sword, and often history has proved 
that pens as well as swords are needed to win great 
causes. So it was in the American Revolution. 
Patrick Henry was a great orator — his stirring 
speeches were needed to rouse men to action. 
George Washington was a great soldier — his 
sword was necessary through all the years of 
battle. But Thomas Jefferson was a great writer, 
and his pen was needed to set down in clear sen- 
tences the things of which Henry spoke and 
for which Washington fought. And even to-day, 
so many years after Jefferson's death, men 
remember him most and best by what he wrote. 
Every Fourth of July, as we read again our great 
Declaration of Independence, we honor its author, 
Thomas Jefferson. 

Near a little mountain, Monticello, in Albe- 
marle County, Virginia, Jefferson was born on 
April 13, 1743. His father was Peter Jefferson, 
a farmer and surveyor. His mother was Jane 
Randolph. At seventeen he was ready for college ; 



ISO 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



so he mounted his horse and rode down from the 
red hills of Piedmont, through Midland Virginia 




THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE WRITER 



and sandy Tidewater, to old Williamsburg. There 
he entered the college of William and Mary. At 



JEFFERSON AND HIS PEN 151 

this time he was tall and slender, with grayish hazel 
eyes and reddish hair. By the time he was full 
grown he stood six feet two inches tall. He was 
fond of the ladies and of music. One of the 
things he carried to Williamsburg was his violin. 

After graduating from William and Mary young 
Jefferson remained at Williamsburg a while longer 
to study law under the eminent teacher, George 
Wythe. 

One day at Williamsburg, in the year 1765, 
Jefferson visited the House of Burgesses and heard 
a thrilling speech. It was delivered by a young 
lawyer who represented Louisa County. The 
young lawyer was Patrick Henry, and it was his 
speech against the Stamp Act that Jefferson heard. 
From that day forth he too, like Henry, was on 
fire for liberty. 

And four years later he too was a member of 
the House of Burgesses. Then he had a vote. He 
also had a voice, and could take part in discussing 
questions. But he never was much of a speaker. 
He preferred to write, and he soon proved that 
whenever there was any important writing to be 
done he could do it better than any other man 
in the colonies. 

In the House of Burgesses from time to time 
Jefferson helped to draw up various bills, but the 
measure of which he himself was proudest was the 
one which established in Virginia religious freedom. 



152 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



This law made every person free to support what- 
ever church he chose. 

In 1775 and 1776 Jefferson was a member of the 
Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and it 
was there that he did his most famous piece of 




MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON 

writing. One day a brilliant orator, Richard 
Henry Lee of Virginia, another member of Con- 
gress, rose and moved that a declaration of in- 
dependence be adopted. The motion was carried 
and Jefferson was made chairman of a committee 
to write a declaration. He wrote one and his 
associates on the committee changed it only a 
little. Then it was adopted by Congress and, on 
July 4, 1776, it was signed. 

Then Liberty Bell rang out and the people 



JEFFERSON AND HIS PEN 153 

shouted. Far and near the tidings flew. In the 
next few days the American armies also heard the 
news and hstened with tightening grips on their 
muskets as the Declaration was read to them. 
It was a great message to the world for freedom and 
justice. Its ringing sentences stir the nations 
still. 

The colonies were full grown and knew^ it. 

Students of history in high school and college 
often use what are called source books ; and in 
source books of Am^erican history they find the 
Declaration of Independence. They also find 
there two other famous documents that Jefferson 
wrote, or had a part in writing. One of them is 
called the Ordinance of 1787. It follows largely 
a set of laws that Jefferson wrote in 1784. The 
other famous document referred to is called the 
Kentucky Resolutions. It was written by Jeffer- 
son and was adopted by the lawmakers of Ken- 
tucky in 1798. Of these two documents we need 
not speak further here, but in due time you will 
learn more about them. 

In speaking of Jefferson and what he wrote we 
should also honor another great Virginian who 
won fame with his pen. This man was George 
Mason. 

George Mason was older than Jefferson by 
eighteen years. He was seven years older than 
his friend and neighbor, George Washington. He 



154 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

lived at Gunston Hall, now in Fairfax County, 
only a few miles south of Mt. Vernon, the home 
of Washington. 

George Mason is best known as the author of 
the Virginia Declaration of Rights. This he 
wrote in June, 1776. At the same time he also 
wrote, or helped to write, Virginia's first con- 
stitution. At the beginning of Virginia's present 
constitution is a bill of rights which is in many 
parts the same as the Declaration of Rights that 
George Mason wrote in 1776. Mason also helped 
to frame the Constitution of the United States in 
1787. 

Mason and Jefferson both stand in bronze, with 
Patrick Henry, Andrew Lewis, John Marshall, 
and Thomas Nelson, beneath the statue of Wash- 
ington in Richmond. And at Alexandria, near 
the old homes of Mason and Washington, was 
launched in January, 1919, a great steamship 
named Gimstoji Hall. 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In working for great causes the world needs writers 
as well as fighters. 

2. Thomas Jefferson was a great writer. While Patrick 
Henry and others were speaking and Washington and others 
were fighting for freedom and justice, Jefferson was writing 
down what freedom and justice are and the reasons why we 
love them. 



JEFFERSON AND HIS PEN 155 

3. The most famous thing Jefferson wrote was the Decla- 
ration of Independence. 

4. George Mason was also a great writer for freedom and 
justice. 

5. The most famous thing Mason wrote was the Virginia 
Declaration of Rights; 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 226- 
246. 

Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 180-192. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Thames: Colonial Virginia; pages 356- 

371- 

Cooke: Virginia; pages 405-415. 

Mason: George Mason of Virginia; pages 1-46. 

Suggestion. — Divide the class into two equal groups. 
Let one make a list of all the Thomases, the other a list of 
all the Georges, thus far mentioned in the text. This will 
be an interesting exercise and will afford a good review. 
Require page reference after each name listed. 



CHAPTER XXI 
"THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST" 

Hannibal was a great general of ancient times. 
He crossed wide valleys and high mountains ; he 
conquered rich countries. He lived in the Old 
World — in the East. 

In American history we read of a man who did 
similar things, though he had only a few soldiers. 
He overcame such terrible hardships and achieved 
such splendid results that we call him the "Han- 
nibal of the West." We honor him in Virginia 
especially because he was born in Virginia, he was 
commissioned by the governor of Virginia, he 
was followed by men of Virginia, and his con- 
quests fell to Virginia. His name was George 
Rogers Clark. Clarke County, Virginia, was 
named after him. 

Clark was born in Albemarle County, in 1752, 
near the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson. When 
he was a boy of five his parents moved to Caroline 
County. There he grew up ; but at the age of 
eighteen or twenty he crossed the Alleghanies 
into the Ohio Valley. There he spent two or 
three years hunting, fishing, and .surveying land. 

156 



"THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST" 157 

About the time the Revokitionary War broke 
out he went to Kentucky. Kentucky was then 
a part of Virginia. Clark, Daniel Boone, and 
others were leaders among the settlers in fighting 
the Indians and in organizing a sort of government 
for Kentucky. 

Soon Clark and Gabriel John Jones were sent 
to represent the county of Kentucky in the 
Virginia legislature at Williamsburg. There Clark 
told Governor Patrick Henry and others of the 
great need of defending Kentucky against the 
Indians and of holding the country north of the 
Ohio River against the British. The latter were 
pushing down from Canada and were in a fair way 
to get all the Illinois country, as the huge territory 
between the Ohio and the Great Lakes was called. 

Governor Henry at once saw the wisdom of 
Vv^iat Clark advised. He therefore commissioned 
Clark to raise several companies of soldiers and 
to lead them into the Illinois country. Going 
north through Virginia, Clark collected some 
troops, led them westward to the Ohio River, and 
with them floated down the river in boats and on 
rafts. Just before they reached the Mississippi 
they landed on the right-hand bank of the Ohio 
and marched northwest about a hundred miles 
to Fort Kaskaskia. This they captured on July 
4, 1778. Kaskaskia was about sixty miles south 
of St. Louis. 



158 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



In the following winter Clark and his men 
marched nearly two hundred miles eastward and 
captured Fort Vincennes, February 24, 1779. 
This fort was on the east bank of the Wabash 
River, in what is now the state of Indiana. If 
you read an interesting book called "Alice of Old 

Vincennes" you will 
not forget the place. 
By the capture of 
Kaskaskia, Vincennes, 
and other places 
Clark and his men 
got control of all the 
vast Illinois country. 
Being thus in the 
hands of Virginia at 
the close of the 
Revolution in 1783, 
it remained so. 
Otherwise it would 
in all probability 
have gone to Great 
Britain and would accordingly be a part of Canada 
to-day. 

In 1784 Virginia gave all of her Illinois country 
— her northwest territory — to the United States 
government. In 1787 it, with the adjoining 
cessions of two or three other states, was organized 
under the famous Northwest Ordinance (Ordi= 




GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, THE HANNIBAL 
OF THE west" 



"THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST" 159 

nance of 1787) ; and later, at one time and an- 
other, it was divided up into the great states of 
lUinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 
A part of Minnesota was also carved out of it. 

Thus we see how important the conquest of the 
Illinois country was. It was not only one of the 
most splendid deeds of the Revolution, it was 
one of the greatest achievements in American 
history. Clark at the time was only twenty- 
seven ; and he had less than two hundred men. 

The remainder of his life Clark lived in Ken- 
tucky, dying there in poverty in the year 1818. 
His grave is somewhere in one of the cemeteries 
of Louisville. Unfortunately he weakened his 
later life by hard drinking; otherwise he would 
doubtless have been a governor of Kentucky or 
a member of Congress from that state. 

General Clark had a brother William, who also 
became famous. William Clark was one of the 
leaders of the great Lewis and Clark expedition 
across the Rocky Mountains, made from 1804 
to 1806, while Thomas Jefferson was President 
of the United States. William Clark was born 
in Caroline County, Virginia, in 1770. A tall 
monument in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, 
honors his memory. Both he and his brother, 
George Rogers Clark, have recently been honored 
with monuments in the city of Charlottesville, 
Virginia. 



i6o A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. General George Rogers Clark is called the "Hannibal 
of the West." 

2. He, with less than 200 men, conquered the territory 
north of the Ohio River in 1 778-1 779. 

3. This enabled Virginia and the United States to hold 
the Northwest Territory at the close of the Revolution. 

4. Virginia ceded all her Northwest Territory to the United 
States in 1784. 

5. The Northwest Territory was organized by Congress 
in 1787, under the famous set of laws known as the North- 
west Ordinance. 

6. The states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota were formed from the 
Northwest Territory. 

7. The conquest of the Northwest (Illinois country) 
by Clark and his men was one of the greatest deeds in Amer- 
ican history. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 207-215. 
Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 245-256. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Cooke : Virginia ; pages 449-454. 

McElroy : Kentucky in the Nation's History ; pages 56- 

McMurry: Special Method in History ; pages 85-109. 
Roosevelt : Winning of the West ; Part 2, chapters VI 
and VII. 



CHAPTER XXII 
CAMPBELL AND KING'S MOUNTAIN 

Among the men who aided Patrick Henry and 
Andrew Lewis in 1775 and 1776 in driving 
Governor Dunmore out of Virginia was a hardy 
young Scotchman from what is now Smyth 
County, Virginia. His name was Wilham Camp- 
beU. His wife was Ehzabeth Henry, a sister of 
Patrick Henry. Captain Campbell met her at 
Williambsurg in the early days of the Revolution. 

In October, 1780, William Campbell, then a 
colonel, rendered a notable service to the American 
cause. He led a thousand troopers, frontiersmen 
from Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, 
to King's Mountain and there defeated the enemy, 
turning the tide of war in that part of the country 
toward American victory. 

The British under Lord Cornwallis were moving 
up through the Carolinas toward Virginia. Gates, 
an American general, had been terribly defeated 
by Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina, in 
August, 1780. Soon afterward Cornwallis had 
sent Major Ferguson westward into the mountains 
to enlist the Tories there under the British flag. 

M 161 



i62 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Tories in this case were Americans who sided with 
the British. 

About October i, 1780, Ferguson with his Httle 
army was not far from King's Mountain, This 
is a low, rugged ridge on or near the border hne 
between South CaroHna and North CaroHna. 
And the tall backwoodsmen of eastern Tennessee, 
western North Carolina, and southwest Virginia 
were on Ferguson's trail. Riding their horses 
hard, down through the valleys and over the 
mountains they came : Isaac Shelby and the 
veterans of Watauga ; John Sevier and the men 
of Nolichucky ; Vl^illiam Campbell and the pioneers 
of the green-bordered Holston. 

From Campbell's home on the Holston down to 
King's Mountain was two hundred miles ; but 
on with grim determination the fierce frontiers- 
men rode. Some of them were mere boys, hardly 
able to bear a rifle, yet eager for the fray. Some 
of them had never been in battle, but others had 
grappled with the Indians at Point Pleasant ; 
and some had fought with British regulars. 

They crossed the Blue Ridge at Gillespie's 
Gap, pushing down into the valley of the Catawba 
River. At Quaker Meadows they were joined 
by Colonel Ben Cleveland and others with three 
hundred and fifty men. As they came near to 
King's Mountain Colonel Campbell was elected 
to the chief command. Ferguson's regiment of 



CAMPBELL AND KING'S MOUNTAIN 163 

a thousand men, armed with rifles, bayonets, and 
swords, was behind rocks and breastworks on the 
little mountain. Campbell's regiment of a thou- 
sand men, armed with rifles, tomahawks, and 
butcher-knives, came riding up, splashing through 
the rain and mud, tired and hungry. All night 
they had ridden, fearing only that Ferguson might 
escape. 

It was October 7, 1780. As the day wore on 
the clouds broke away and the sun shone out. 
At three o'clock in the afternoon the battle began. 
In an hour it was done. Ferguson and two 
hundred of his men were dead, for they had fought 
hard. Most of the others were prisoners. Camp- 
bell's men had surrounded the mountain and, 
like Indians, had played up to the summit from 
every side. Only a few of the enemy had been 
able to escape. 

Casting lots for Major Ferguson's personal 
effects, as souvenirs of the battle. Colonel Cleve- 
land got his white horse ; Colonel Shelby got the 
silver whistle with which he had rallied his men ; 
Colonel Sevier got his silk sash ; and Colonel 
Campbell got his letters and papers. There was 
glory enough for all. 

King's Mountain was a telling victory for the 
American cause. It took Cornwallis by surprise 
and completely upset his plans. It aroused the 
patriots of the South and marked the end of easy 



i64 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



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JEFFERSON S LETTER REGARDING COLONEL WILLLA.M CAMPBELL 



CAMPBELL AND KING'S MOUNTAIN 165 

victories for the invaders. It is often spoken of 
as the turning-point of the Revolution. 

Colonel Campbell received the thanks of the 
Virginia House of Delegates for his brilliant 
services at King's Mountain, and soon afterwards 
he was made a brigadier-general. Many years 
later Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter testifying 
to his valuable services. 

Another engagement in which Campbell dis- 
tinguished himself was the battle of Guilford 
Court House, in North Carolina, early in the 
year 1781. His last military operations were 
carried on later in the same year in Virginia, under 
Lafayette. The latter was then watching the 
movements of Cornwallis. 

Before the end of 1781 General Campbell died, 
aged only thirty-six. But as a soldier, a local 
magistrate, and as a member of the Virginia House 
of Delegates he made himself a lasting record in 
the history of his native state and of his country 
at large. Lafayette declared that his services at 
King's Mountain and Guilford would "do his 
memory everlasting honor, and insure him a 
high rank among the defenders of liberty in the 
American cause." 

His tomb is near his old home in Smyth County, 
at Seven Mile Ford, on the Holston River. Camp- 
bell County, Virginia, perpetuates his name. 



i66 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. On October 7, 1780, the British under Major Ferguson 
were defeated at King's Mountain by the Americans under 
Colonel William Campbell. 

2. King's Mountain is on the border line between North 
Carolina and South Carolina, between Catawba River on 
the east and Broad River on the west. 

3. The men under Campbell were frontiersmen from west- 
ern North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southwest Vir- 
ginia. 

4. The victory at King's Mountain did much to help the 
American cause. It is often called the turning-point of the 
Revolution. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Connor : Story of the Old North State ; pages 93-97. 
Kennedy : Horse-Shoe Robinson ; Standard Literature 
Series; pages 174-192. 

Turner: Life of General John Sevier; pages 108-135. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Bassett : Plain Story of American History ; pages 171-174. 
Roosevelt: Winning of the West; Part 3, pages 136-187. 
Spears: History of the Mississippi Valley ; pages 313-318. 
Summers : History of Southwest Virginia ; pages 304-341. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE 

At Mt. Vernon, the old home of George Wash- 
ington, visitors may see to-day, in a case of rehcs, 
a big iron key. It is 
the key of the Bas- 
tille, and it was sent 
across the ocean to 
General Washington 
more than a hundred 
years ago as a present 
by General Lafayette. 

The Bastille was a 
strong old castle in 
France, used for 
many years as a 
prison. Those of you 

, , 1 t I GENERAL LAFAYETTE 

who have read a book 

called "A Tale of Two Cities," written by Charles 

Dickens, already know something of the Bastille. 

In 1789 the French people began to fight against 
their king, for liberty ; and one of the first notable 
things they did was to tear down the Bastille. 
They thought that the king had allowed people 
to be imprisoned in the Bastille unjustly. 

167 




i68 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Lafayette remembered how Washington had 
fought in America for hberty, so he sent him the 
Bastille ke}^ When Washington received it he 
must have remembered how Lafayette had come 
to America to help him in the fight. He also 
must have recalled how, after Lafayette had been 
here several years, the king of France himself 
sent soldiers and ships and money to help America. 
Washington knew that without the help of Lafay- 
ette and other Frenchmen, without French money 
and French ships, the Revolution would have failed. 

Washington loved Lafayette as if he had been 
his own son ; and Lafayette loved Washington 
so much that he named his son George Washington 
Lafayette. 

It is proper to recognize Lafayette in the history 
of any one of our states, and especially in the 
history of Virginia ; for Mt. Vernon is in Virginia, 
and Mt. Vernon was almost home to Lafayette. 
Many of the soldiers who fought under Lafayette 
in the Revolution were Virginians. Lafayette 
for a while was in chief command in Virginia. He 
took part in the siege of Yorktown, on Virginia 
soil, and was present there when Cornwallis 
surrendered. Moreover, when Lafayette came 
back to America in later years he did not fail to 
visit Virginia. 

Lafayette was born in France in the year 1757. 
He came of a noble family and was christened 



WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE 169 

with a long name, part of which was Gilbert. 
His mother, it is said, called him Gilbert. 

In 1776, when Lafayette was nineteen years old, 
he first heard of the war for liberty in America. 
He was then a French captain of artillery. In 
April of 1777, with eleven other young officers, 
he set sail for the New World, and in June landed 
at Georgetown, South Carolina. On horseback 
he rode to Philadelphia, being on the road more 
than a month. At Philadelphia, the Continental 
Congress was in session and that body on July 31 
(1777) appointed him a major-general. The next 
day he was introduced to Washington, and soon 
he was a member of Washington's staff. 

It was, of course, an unusual honor for a young 
man of twenty to be made a major-general, but 
Lafayette was an unusual man. And soon at 
the battle of Brandywine he proved his ability 
and his bravery. But in the same battle he 
received a wound that laid him up for two months. 
Already Washington must have loved Lafayette, 
for when the latter was shot Washington said to 
the surgeon, "Take care of the marquis as though 
he were my own son." 

During the winter of 1 777-1 778, while Washing- 
ton and his army were suffering so terribly from cold 
and hunger at Valley Forge, twenty miles west of 
Philadelphia, Lafayette suffered with them, but 
at the same time helped to keep up their courage 



lyo 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



with his own brave spirit ; and when some Ameri- 
can officers who were jealous of Washington made 
a plot against him, Lafayette stood by him loyally 
and boldly. 

In 1778 the king of France decided to recognize 
the independence of the United States and to give 




WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE AT VALLEY FORGE 



them aid openly. Accordingly, the next year 
Lafayette went to France to help in the plans for 
sending French ships and French soldiers to 
America. After valuable service there he hastened 
back to Washington. 

Early in 1781 Lafayette was sent to Virginia 
with a small army to help defend the state against 



WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE 171 

the enemy. Around Richmond and Petersburg 
he skillfully opposed the invaders, and when they 
endeavored to move toward Fredericksburg and 
Charlottesville he stood in their way and checked 
them. Then later in the year (1781), as we have 
seen, after Cornwallis had settled down at York- 
town, Lafayette helped Washington to lay the 
great military and naval trap in which the proud 
general and his army were caught. 

Twice after the close of the Revolution Lafayette 
came back to the United States. The first time 
was in 1784, when he came at the special in- 
vitation of Washington. Naturally then, upon 
that occasion, Mt. Vernon was his headquarters. 
But he visited the several states from Virginia 
to Massachusetts. 

His second visit was made forty years later, in 
1824. Washington had then been dead twenty- 
five years. The original number of states had 
nearly doubled ; and Lafayette himself was a man 
of sixty-seven. This time he came at the special 
invitation of Congress and President Monroe. 
He remained more than a year — long enough to 
visit all of the twenty-four states of the Union. 

At Mt. Vernon he was met by Washington's 
favorite nephew and other relatives and in their 
company he went out to the brow of the hill over- 
looking the Potomac. There he reverently bowed 
before Washington's tomb. 



172 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

As he passed from state to state and from city 
to city, shouting throngs greeted him. Children 
robed in white sang his praises, and flowers were 
strewn in his path. He was indeed the nation's 
guest ; and when he returned to France a ship 
named the Brandywine was provided to carry him. 
The name of the ship recalled the first notable 
battle in which, nearly fifty years before, he had 
aided Washington in the long fight for liberty. 

Lafayette died in Paris in May, 1834. He was 
mourned in America hardly less than in his own 
land ; for, as many said of him, "he was a man of 
two worlds." And in the World War from 19 14 
to 191 8, when young men and young women from 
the United States went to France and joined her 
in her splendid defense against invasion, they 
felt that they were only paying a little of their 
debt to France and Lafayette. The red, white, 
and blue of the Stars and Stripes was joined 
gloriously with the red, white, and blue of the flag 
of F'rance. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Lafayette was a young French nobleman who came to 
America in 1777 to aid the thirteen colonies in their struggle 
for independence. 

2. For a while Lafayette served on Washington's staff and 
from that time forth they were bosom friends. 

3. In 1779 Lafa3'ette went back to France and induced 
the French government to give America more liberal aid. 



WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE 173 

4. In 1 78 1 Lafayette commanded the troops defending 
Virginia, and in October of that year he helped to capture 
Cornwalhs at Yorktown. 

5. Lafayette revisited America in 1784 and again in 1824, 
On the earher visit he was the special guest of Washington ; 
on the later one he was the guest of the nation. 

6. In the recent World War America remembered her debt 
to France and Lafayette. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Burton : Lafayette, The Friend of American Liberty. 
Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominion; pages 308-334. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 143-152. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Cooke: Virginia; pages 458-472. 

Eckenrode : The Revolution in Virginia; pages 261-275. 



PART III— VIRGINIA AND THE 
STRONGER UNION 

CHAPTER XXIV 

"THE MOTHER OF STATES" 

In Chapter VIII we learned why Virginia was 
first called the Old Dominion. Old Dominion is 
her oldest nickname, and the one most used ; but 
she is also called sometimes the Mother of Presi- 
dents ; and often she is termed the Mother of 
States. In this chapter we shall learn some 
reasons for calling her the Mother of States. 

In the first place, Virginia is the oldest of all the 
states of the Union. The first permanent settle- 
ment within her borders was made at Jamestown 
in 1607, six or seven years before the first settle- 
ments in New York and thirteen years before the 
landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. 

In the second place, a number of other states of 
the Union have been formed from territory that 
was once a part of Virginia. This is doubtless the 
main reason why Virginia is called the Mother of 
States. 

174 



*'THE MOTHER OF STATES" 



175 



Let us now see how certain other states were 
carved out from time to time from Virginia 
territory. 

The first one was Kentucky. After Daniel 
Boone, George Rogers Clark, and other pioneers 




DANIEL BOONE, A PIONEER OF KENTUCKY 

had been exploring Kentucky for several years, 
and after a number of settlements had been made 
therein, the great region was organized in a 
loose way and was recognized as a county of 
Virginia. Clark and John Jones were sent to 



176 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Williamsburg to represent the new county in the 
House of Burgesses. Later, in 1792, it was more 
thoroughly organized and was admitted into the 
Union as a state. 

In 1802 Ohio became a state in the Union. This 
state, we should remember, was part of the vast 
Illinois country which was conquered in 1778-1779 
by George Rogers Clark, and which was organized 
as the Northwest Territory under the famous 
Ordinance of 1787. 

The other states which were created from the 
Northwest Territory were Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin. They were admitted 
into the Union at intervals from 18 16 to 1848. 
A part of Minnesota, also, as we learned in 
Chapter XXI, was included in the huge Northwest 
Territory. 

Parts of the Northwest Territory were claimed 
by certain other states ; but whatever we may 
decide regarding the claims of those states, we 
must not overlook the fact that Virginia had a 
double claim. Her claim rested first upon her 
charter of 1609, and in the second place it rested 
upon the conquest of the country in the Revolution 
by Clark and his fellow-Virginians. And the 
people of the region had taken an oath of alle- 
giance to Virginia. 

Moreover, only certain parts of the Northwest 
Territory were claimed by other states. Vir- 



"THE MOTHER OF STATES" 177 

ginia's claims upon two thirds of it or more were 
generally admitted. 

During the Revolution and the years imme- 
diately following, some of the thirteen original 
states hesitated to enter the Union, and one reason 
was because Virginia and a few other states had 
so much western land. Finally, to remove the 
stumbling-block, those states that had or claimed 
to have large tracts of land in the West agreed to 
give them to the United States government, the 
said lands thus to be under the control of all the 
states in the Union and to be used for the good of 
all. In 1784 Virginia ceded her great northwest 
territor}^ to the federal government, and within 
the next year or two the other states that claimed 
lands in the West did the same thing. Thus the 
general government was made rich, the fears of 
the smaller states were allayed, and the Union 
was established upon a strong foundation. 

If Virginia had never done anything more, this 
gift of her northwest empire to the Union would 
of itself have made her the Mother of States. 

But in 1863 Virginia gave the flag another star, 
the Union another state. That state was West 
Virginia. As a result of the growing differences 
that brought on the Civil War, some fifty of the 
northwestern counties of Virginia broke away 
from the old state and organized themselves in- 
dependently. In 1863 they were recognized by 



178 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Congress as the state of West Virginia — the 
thirty-fifth state of the Union. 

West Virginia is Virginia's youngest daughter. 
Virginia gave her up unwilhngly, but she was none 
the less a part of Virginia. 

The fact that Virginia in 1786 took the first 
steps that led to making a new and a stronger 
constitution for the United States, and the fact 
that her sons took a leading part in framing that 
new constitution, might also be cited to show why 
Virginia is fittingly called the Mother of States. 

George Mason through his Declaration of 
Rights, Thomas Jefferson through the Declaration 
of Independence, George Washington through 
his steady leadership in the Revolution, George 
Rogers Clark through his conquest of the North- 
west, and James Madison as father of the new 
constitution, all had a share in giving to their 
native state her proudest title. And with them 
served many others, less known to fame, but no 
less faithful to public duty. 

For many years after the Revolution, Virginia 
was a leader among the states of the South very 
much as Massachusetts was among the states of 
the North. And these two states seemed to be of 
close kin in many ways. They seemed to have 
much in common, even though one had welcomed 
the Cavalier and the other had welcomed the 
Puritan. Both seemed to embody very much 



"THE MOTHER OF STATES" 179 

the same brand of Englishman. And from very 
early times Virginia and Massachusetts seemed 
often to join hands, as it were, across the distances 
that separated them, and thus they were often 
the ones to whom the younger colonies and the 
younger states looked for counsel and guidance. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. "Mother of States" is one of the titles by which Vir- 
ginia is known. 

2. Virginia bears this title for a number of reasons, some 
of which are the following : 

(i) Virginia is the oldest of all the states of the Union. 

(2) A number of other states of the Union have been 
formed from territory that was once a part of Virginia. 

(3) Virginia, more than any other state, endowed the 
Union with wealth through the gift of her great northwest 
territory. 

(4) Washington, Madison, and other Virginians had 
much to do with making a new and a stronger constitution 
for the United States. 

3. South of the Ohio River two states, Kentucky and West 
Virginia, were made from Virginia territory. 

4. North of the Ohio River five states, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, were made from territory 
that belonged wholly or in part to Virginia. 

5. A part of Minnesota also was taken from Virginia's 
northwest territory. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Guerber: Story of the Great Republic; pages 21-25. 
Smithey: History of Virginia ; pages 158-164. 



i8o A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

• Dickson : American History ; pages 244-249. 

Fiske : Critical Period of Amewcan History; pages 187- 
212. 

McElroy : Kentucky in the Nation's History ; Chapter 
IV. 



CHAPTER XXV 

WASHINGTON AND MADISON IN INDEPENDENCE 

HALL 

Independence Hall is an old brick building 
in the city of Philadelphia. It is crowned with a 
tower and fronted by a small park. In it the 
Continental Congress often met during the Revo- 
lution. In it Washington was made comman- 
der-in-chief of the continental armies. In it the 
members of Congress signed the Declaration of 
Independence ; and in it to-day hangs the fa- 
mous old bell called Liberty Bell. 

In Independence Hall, in the year 1787, the 
Constitution of the United States was made ; 
and in this chapter it is our purpose to show how 
George Washington and James Madison, two 
Virginians, helped to make the Constitution. 

Early in the Revolutionary War the Continental 
Congress drew up a constitution for the United 
States, but that constitution, called the Articles 
of Confederation, did not work very well. It 
was not strong enough. That is to say, it did not 
give the United States government power enough. 
It did not make the Union strong enough. At 

181 



i82 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 




INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA 



WASHINGTON AND MADISON 183 

different times during the war the defects of the 
central government were seen, and no sooner was 
the war ended than those defects seemed worse. 
There was great danger that the several states 
would break up the Union altogether by quarrel- 
ing among themselves. 

Already we have seen how Virginia and a few 
other states helped to save the day — helped to 
save the Union — by ceding their western lands 
to the general government. But something more 
was demanded. A better agreement among the 
states — a better constitution — was necessary. 

In January, 1786, Virginia took a step that led 
to great results. Her legislature proposed a 
plan in accordance with which delegates from five 
states met together at Annapolis, Maryland, to 
talk over the questions that were making trouble. 
Soon these delegates at Annapolis decided that 
they could not settle the questions, and they rec- 
ommended another meeting, a larger conference, 
the next year. 

Accordingly, In May, 1787, a larger conference 
assembled at Philadelphia. This time nearly all 
of the states sent delegates. Fifty-five great men 
came together to work out great problems. They 
met in Independence Hall, and from May to 
September they labored. The result was a new 
constitution for the United States — the one we 
still have ; and that body of men that made it is 



i84 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

known in history as the Constitutional Conven- 
tion. 

To the Constitutional Convention Virginia sent 
six delegates : George Washington, George Wythe, 
George Mason, John Blair, Edmund Randolph, 
and James Madison. When General Washington 
was chosen to preside over the body, confidence 
and hope were at once established, though every 
one knew that the tasks in hand were difficult. 

At first many of the delegates thought only of 
revising the old constitution (Articles of Con- 
federation), but soon new plans were laid. Finally 
a new constitution was worked out. It changed 
the old loose union, or confederation, into a new 
strong union — a federal republic — in which the 
central government could act directly upon every 
citizen. 

The new constitution also divided the work of 
government among three groups of officials. One 
group was to make the laws, another group was to 
carry out the laws, and a third group was to settle 
all disputes that might arise under the laws. This 
"arrangement we still follow, not only in the federal 
government but also in each state government. 

Washington, as president of the convention, had 
a telling influence in making the Constitution. 
Benjamin Franklin, aged eighty-one, was a sort 
of father among the great and did his noble part. 
Alexander Hamilton of New York was perhaps 



WASHINGTON AND MADISON 



185 



the most brilliant man in the convention. But 
among them all James Madison was doubtless first 
and foremost in getting the great task done. 
Although Madison at this time was only thirty- 
six, he proved himself a wise and able leader. 
So much of the positive work of the convention 
was his that he has 

been called ever ; | 

since the " Father of t s^ ^ , 

the Constitution." * 

The sessions of 
the convention were 
held behind locked 
doors, and for half 
a century the world 
did not know how 
sharply the delegates 
had differed or what 
this one and that one 
had said in debating 
the questions at 

issue. Then, in 1836, Madison died. After his 
death his journal, written during the days of the 
convention, was published. It was the first de- 
tailed report that the public received. 

Thus Madison was not only the Father of the 
Constitution, he was also the official reporter of 
the Constitutional Convention. But, as we have 
seen, his report was not published for fifty years. 




JAMES MADISON, FATHER OF THE CON- 
STITUTION" 



i86 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

By that time all of the fifty-five men were dead. 
Madison died last of all. But by that time the 
Constitution had been tested and the excellence 
of their work had been proved. 

As visitors go through Independence Hall to-day 
they may observe some interesting facts. For 
example, they may read a tablet which states 
that the Hall was begun in 1732. That was the 
very year in which Washington was born. They 
may also observe that the largest picture in the 
building is a portrait of Washington, and that 
the statue which stands in front of the street 
entrance is a statue of Washington. 

Washington and Madison in Independence Hall 
in 1787 helped to build a great nation; and there 
to-day — there and everywhere — the nation 
honors them. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The first constitution of the United States was made 
by the Continental Congress in 1777 and was called the 
Articles of Confederation. 

2. The Articles of Confederation did not work well — 
they left the general government of the United States too 
weak. 

3. In 1787 a new constitution, the one we still have, was 
made at Philadelphia. 

4. The body of delegates that made the Constitution met 
in Independence Hall and is known as the Constitutional 
Convention. 



WASHINGTON AND MADISON 187 

5. Washington and Madison were two of the delegates 
from Virginia. 

6. Washington presided over the Convention and Madison 
did so much of the work that he is called the Father of the 
Constitution. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 247-255. 
Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 194-197- 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Bassett : Plain Story of American History ; pages 182-194. 
Fiske : Critical Period of American History ; pages 224- 
261. 
Wilson: History of the American People; Vol. HI, pages 

38-76. 

Note. — The Detroit Publishing Company, Detroit, 
Mich., can supply beautiful colored "Phostint" post cards 
of Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross (Flag) House, 
and other historic objects. Such cards may be used very 
helpfully in presenting history lessons to chddren. 

The Keystone View Co., Meadville, Pa., has an educa- 
tional series of 300 pictures to enrich Virginia history, Vir- 
ginia geography, and Virginia civics. These pictures wdl 
be found helpful in connection with many chapters through- 
out the book. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 

Washington and Madison, as we have seen, 
were two of the Virginians who helped to make 
the Constitution of the United States in 1787. 
In 1789 the new government under the Consti- 
tution began, with Washington as first President. 
Soon Madison too was called to serve in the 
President's chair. Just before him was President 
Thomas Jefferson and just after him was President 
James Monroe, also Virginians. In this chapter 
we shall speak of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, 
and Monroe, four early Presidents from Virginia. 

Because Washington had commanded the sol- 
diers who won the Revolution and had presided 
over the delegates who made the Constitution, it 
was quite natural that he should be chosen first 
President under the Constitution. March 4, 1789, 
was the day set for the new government to be 
organized. New York City was the appointed 
place. But March 4 came and passed, with 
little done. Roads were so bad and travel was so 
slow in those days that it was April 30 before the 
inauguration of the President really took place. 

i83 



FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 189 




GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

From Mt. Vernon in Virginia, up through 
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New 
Jersey, to New York is a long, long way. And 



I90 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Washington's horse, though strong and faithful, 
could not always hurry. Often, too, the great 
man had to stop to shake hands with his old com- 
rades along the way — veterans of the war, 
who had followed him at Princeton, at Brandy- 
wine, at Valley Forge, a dozen years before. 

At Trenton, New Jersey, where Washington in 
1776 had captured a thousand men for a Christmas 
gift, thirteen young women, dressed in white and 
bearing flowers in their hands, met him and bade 
him welcome. The thirteen girls in white rep- 
resented the thirteen stars upon the flag — the 
thirteen states that did him honor. In his path 
flowers were scattered and over his head were 
raised arches of victory. The whole long way 
from Virginia to New York was marked with 
speeches of welcome and bursts of martial music. 
At the New York ferry were thirteen sailors in 
new uniforms of red, white, and blue, to row him 
over the Hudson River to the shouting city. 

In Wall Street to-day stands a monument — a 
marble statue of Washington. It marks the 
spot where he stood in April, 1789, and took the 
oath of office as first President of the young 
republic. 

New York City was the first capital of the United 
States under the new government. The next 
year, and for ten years following. President and 
Congress met in Philadelphia. Then, in 1800, 



FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 191 

the new city on the Potomac, near Washington's 
old home and named in his honor, was made the 
permanent capital. 

Washington was President for two terms — eight 
years. Many important events marked his ad- 
ministration, but since we are limiting ourselves 
in this book mainly to the history of Virginia we 
shall notice only one of those events. This was 
the admission of the state of Kentucky into the 
Union in 1792. Kentucky was a daughter of 
Virginia. 

In 1797 Washington retired from the Presidency 
and went home to Mt. Vernon. There in 1799 
he died and there he was buried. As the men and 
boys of America to-day visit Mt. Vernon and 
pass before his tomb they remove their hats as 
a mark of honor and respect. And as the ships 
of our navy pass along the river far below they 
sound their bells across the waters. 

The second President of the United States was 
John Adams of Massachusetts. He was followed 
by Thomas Jeffetson, the second one from Virginia. 

Jefferson at the age of twenty-two had listened 
to Patrick Henry's thrilling speech in Williams- 
burg. At thirty-three he had written the Dec- 
laration of Independence in Philadelphia. For 
two years, during the latter part of the Revolution, 
he had been governor of Virginia. While Wash- 
ington and Madison were helping to make the 



192 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Constitution in Independence Hall Jefferson was 
in France, but he returned in 1789 in time for 
Washington's inauguration as President ; and 
for more than four years he was Secretary of State 
under Washington, though he and Washington did 
not always agree on public questions. 

While John Adams was President, Jefferson 
was Vice-President. Then it was that he wrote 
the famous Kentucky Resolutions, mentioned in 
Chapter XX. The Kentucky Resolutions and 
some that Virginia passed about the same time 
opposed certain things that President Adams 
and Congress were doing. For Jefferson did not 
always agree with Adams either. In fact, Jeffer- 
son and Adams belonged to different political 
parties. Such a thing as having the President 
of one party and the Vice-President of the opposite 
party could hardly occur now, but it did occur in 
Jefferson's day. 

Jefferson was the first President to be in- 
augurated at the new capital, Washington. 

Like George Washington, Jefferson was Pres- 
ident for two terms ; and the eight years of his 
administration, 1801 to 1809, were full of important 
events. One of those events was the admission 
of Ohio into the Union as a state. Ohio was part 
of the Northwest Territory which had been con- 
quered by George Rogers Clark and his fellow- 
Virginians in 1 778-1 779 and which Virginia had 



FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 193 

ceded to the federal government in 1784. See 
Chapter XXI. 

Another great event of Jefferson's administration 
was the purchase of the vast Louisiana territory. 
This lay west of the Mississippi River mainly 
and was much larger than the present state of 
Louisiana. It was a huge triangle with one 
corner at the mouth of the Mississippi River, 
another at the head of the Mississippi, and the 
third away up in the Rocky Mountains at the 
head of the Missouri River. About ten states 
besides Louisiana have been made from it. 

Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory 
from France ; and at once he sent out two brave 
captains with a company of men to explore it. 
The two captains were Meriwether Lewis and 
William Clark. Both were Virginians. Clark 
was a native of Caroline County and was a 
brother to the "Hannibal of the West." Lewis 
was a native of Albemarle County, born near the 
same little mountain around which Jefferson 
played as a boy and on which he lived as a man. 

Lewis and Clark went from St. Louis up the 
Missouri and clear across the Rocky Mountains 
to the Pacific Ocean. They had many adventures 
with bears and Indians, and it was two years 
before they got back to St. Louis. But they had 
many interesting things to tell President Jefferson 
when they returned. And the wild people of the 



194 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



West had many stories to relate of them. Only a 
few years ago, near the mouth of the Columbia 
River, an Indian woman died at the age of 103. 
She said that she remembered Lewis and Clark 
and that they were the first white men she had 
ever seen. 

At the end of Chapter XXI reference is made to 
a monument recently erected to William Clark in the 

city of Charlottes- 
ville, Virginia. It 
stands immediately 
in front of one of the 
city schools. It con- 
sists of a splendid 
group of three bronze 
figures. One repre- 
sents Clark, another 
Lewis, and the third 
a friendly Indian girl 
who served the ex- 
ploring party as a 
guide for many days. 
When Jefferson 
retired from the 
Presidency he returned to his home on the little 
mountain, where we shall hear of him again as we 
follow the history of our state. 

The fourth President was James Madison, the 
third one from Virginia. He succeeded Mr. 




DOLLY MADISON, PRESIDENT MADISON S 
BRAVE WIFE 



FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 195 

Jefferson in 1809 and served as chief executive 
of the nation till 1817. While Madison was 
President the states of Louisiana and Indiana 
were admitted to the Union. The former was 
made from a small part of Jefferson's great pur- 
chase, the latter from a portion of the Northwest 
Territory that George Rogers Clark had con- 
quered. 

But the most notable event of Madison's 
administration was the second war with Great 
Britain — the War of 1812. It began in 1812 
and ended early in 1815 ; and in it we fought for 
freedom on the seas. It was on the seas that the 
most brilliant deeds were done, for our little 
navy surprised the world by its splendid record. 

After his service as President, Mr. Madison, 
like Washington and Jefferson, retired to his 
Virginia home. His fine place, Montpelier, may 
still be seen near the town of Orange. At Mont- 
pelier he enjoyed for twenty years more the quiet 
life of a country gentleman, taking a keen interest 
in the welfare of Virginia and aiding Mr. Jefferson 
and others in building up our schools. 

James Monroe came fifth in the line of Presidents 
and was the fourth son of Virginia to serve as head 
of the nation. Like the other three Virginians 
. who preceded him, he was President for two 
terms. Like Washington, he was a native of 
Westmoreland County. 



196 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



At the beginning of the Revolutionary War 
Monroe was a student at WilHam and Mary 
College. Soon he left his books to be a soldier. 
In 1776 he traveled nearly to New York to join 

a Virginia regiment. 
At that time he was 
only eighteen. He 
served valiantly in a 
number of battles 
but was not given 
much recognition. 
After the war he was 
a member of the Vir-' 
ginia legislature and 
of the Continental 
Congress. 

During the eight 
years (1817-1825) 
that Monroe was 
President many nota- 
ble incidents marked 
our national history. Illinois and several other 
states were admitted to the Union. The Florida 
territory was purchased from Spain. The famous 
Missouri Compromise, of which you will learn 
more later, was drawn up in Congress. The Erie 
Canal was opened between the Great Lakes and the 
Hudson River. But the most famous thing that is 
associated with the name and time of Monroe is 




JAMES MONROE, FIFTH PRESIDENT OF 
THE UNITED STATES 



FOUR VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 197 

the Monroe Doctrine. This, at the time it was 
issued in 1823, was a sort of second Declaration 
of Independence for the United States, It was a 
statement to the effect that the United States 
would maintain its own independence and would 
also help other countries in America to maintain 
theirs. It has proved to be one of the most 
important statements ever made by any of our 
Presidents. 

Mr. Monroe spent much of his later life in Vir- 
ginia, and his tomb may be seen at Richmond, 
in the beautiful Hollywood Cemetery. 

For each of these four President sons Virginia 
named a county. Washington County and Madi- 
son County are still in the mother state. Jefferson 
County and Monroe County are now in the 
daughter state of West Virginia. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Four early Presidents of the United States, Washing- 
ton, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, were sons of Virginia. 

2. For each of these men Virginia named a county; and 
for Washington the new capital city of the nation also was 
named. 

3. The most notable thing that President Jefferson did 
was to purchase the Louisiana territory from France. 

4. The most notable incident of Madison's administra- 
tion was the second war with Great Britain. 

5. The most notable thing that President Monroe did was 
to issue the Monroe Doctrine. 



198 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



PUPIL'S READINGS 



Alderman : Fourth Reader; pages 48, 49. 

Hurlbut : Lives of Our Presidents ; pages 1-72. 

Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 134-142. 



TEACHER'S READINGS 



Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 256-265: 
Dodd : Statesmen of the Old South ; pages 1-88. 
Eckenrode: The Revolution in Virginia; pages 294-301. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



JOHN MARSHALL, THE GREAT CHIEF JUSTICE 

The big crack in Liberty Bell dates from 1835. 
In that year a great man died in Philadelphia, 
and the famous bell cracked while it was being 
tolled in his honor. That great 
man was John Marshall, a son of 
Virginia. 

A few years ago, when the author 
of this book visited Independence 
Hall, Marshall's picture was hang- 
ing near Liberty Bell. Thus it ap- 
pears that in this historic building 
where Washington, Madison, and 
other Virginians helped to make 
the Constitution, John Marshall also is remem- 
bered. He, too, had something to do with the 
Constitution, as we shall see. 

John Marshall is honored in his native county 
of Fauquier by the village of Marshall, located 
near the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the Harrison- 
burg branch of the Southern Railway. In the 
vicinity of this village Marshall spent his boyhood 
and grew up to young manhood. Then, when 

199 




LIBERTY BELL 



200 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

he was twenty years old, tall, thin, with black 
eyes and thick black hair, the Revolutionary War 
broke out. Joining the Culpeper Minute-Men, 
a military company that is still famous in Virginia, 
he entered the long fight for liberty. In Virginia 
and in other parts of the country, under Wash- 
ington and other great leaders, he endured the 
hardships of war, performing his tasks faithfully 
and cheerfully. 

It was in 1780 and thereabouts, while he was 
in tidewater Virginia, and not very busy as a 
soldier, that Marshall found a chance to study 
at William and Mary College. James Monroe, 
you will recall, had left William and Mary to be 
a soldier. John Marshall did not enter college 
until he had been a soldier four or five years. 

About the close of the Revolution, Marshall 
located in Richmond and began to practice law. 
Soon he was well known as one of the best lawyers 
in Virginia, and for many years he served the 
state in the legislature — the body of men that 
makes the laws for the state. And in 1788, when 
Virginia had to decide the question whether or 
not she should ratify the federal constitution and 
enter the stronger union under it, Marshall said, 
*'Let us ratify the Constitution! Let us enter 
this new and stronger union !" 

If Washington and Madison were the two 
Virginians who did most to make the Constitution 



JOHN MARSHALL 201 

of the United States, Madison and Marshall were 
the two who did most to get Virginia to accept 
the Constitution after it was made. In this 
way Marshall helped Virginia to do her part again 
in building the new and stronger union. 

But in another way Marshall did even more 
to make the Union strong. In 1801 President 
John Adams appointed Marshall chief justice 
of the United States Supreme Court. From that 
time till his death — for thirty-four years — 
Marshall was the foremost man in explaining and 
shaping the Constitution. He did it through 
the cases at law that the Supreme Court had to 
decide. And most of his decisions, from year to 
year, made the federal government and the union 
of the states stronger and stronger. 

Many persons, many Virginians, did not like 
all of Marshall's views regarding the Constitution 
and the federal union. Even to-day we could not 
expect all of our citizens to agree with all of his 
opinions ; but all will agree, we believe, that his 
great influence, exerted through so many years, 
did much, very much, to strengthen the federal 
government. Like Washington, John Adams, and 
Alexander Hamilton, Marshall was a Federalist. 
As such he often disagreed with Patrick Henry, 
Thomas Jefferson, and others who thought of 
Virginia first and of the federal government 
second. 



202 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



During most of his long career as a lawyer, 
statesman, and jurist, Marshall had his home in 
Richmond. In that city, at the corner of Ninth 
and Marshall streets, may still be seen the old 
brick house in which he lived ; and the splendid 

school building that 
stands near by, cov- 
ering most of a city 
square, is known as 
the John Marshall 
High School. 

Justice Marshall 
was plain in his dress, 
simple in his habits, 
and devout in the 
Christian faith which 
his mother had 
taught him. In his 
old-fashioned gig he 
would often drive 
from Richmond to 
Washington and to other cities in which the federal 
courts were being held. A few miles outside of 
Richmond he had a farm in which he took a great 
interest and on which he would occasionally work 
with his own hands. Among the things that he 
strongly advocated for Virginia were canals and 
good roads. 

Virginia, the Mother of States, in ceding her 




JOHN MARSHALL, THE GREAT CHIEF 
JUSTICE 



JOHN MARSHALL 203 

great northwest territory to the general govern- 
ment, laid a foundation in material wealth for the 
stronger union of the states. Washington and 
Madison in Independence Hall helped to frame 
the fundamental law, the Constitution, that was 
also necessary to a stronger union. Four early 
Presidents fi;om Virginia, Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, and Monroe, guided the ship of state for 
thirty-two years, till the young republic learned 
self-control and proved itself among the nations 
of the world. And, for thirty-four years, John 
Marshall, another son of Virginia, so shaped the 
Constitution that the Union grew continually 
into strength. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. John Marshall was a soldier in the Revolution; then 
he located in Richmond to practice law. 

2. He served Virginia ably as a lawmaker and as an advo- 
cate of good roads. 

3. He helped to build the union of states by inducing Vir- 
ginia to ratify the new federal constitution. 

4. Then, for thirty-four years, as chief justice of the 
United States Supreme Court, he made the Union still 
stronger by his decisions and by his explanations of the 
Constitution. 

5. Through her gift of the Northwest Territory and 
through the work of many of her sons, Virginia took a lead- 
ing part in building and in strengthening the Union. 



204 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



PUPIL'S READINGS 

Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion ; pages 257-266. 
Magill: First Book in Virginia History; pages 112-115. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 267-275. 
Dickson: American History; pages 277-282. 

Suggestion. — An interesting exercise might be worked 
out at this point by having members of the class decide 
which great Virginian thus far mentioned they would choose 
to be. Then give each one a chance to state the reasons 
for his choice. 



PART IV 

THE PERIOD OF GROWTH AND 

GREAT DIFFERENCES 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
THE GATEWAYS IN THE MOUNTAINS 

After the close of the Revolution the people 
of Virginia and other states began to go west in 
growing numbers. On a front of a thousand miles, 
from Georgia in the south to New York and New 
England in the north, the legions of sturdy home- 
seekers moved forward. Their wagons, covered 
with dingy white tents, and slowly dragged along 
by tired horses and panting oxen, crept in long 
files over the mountains and through the valleys ; 
first to the end of the white man's roads, then 
cautiously out upon the trails of the Indians and 
the buffaloes. 

In a hundred streams at once the feet of the 
horses and cattle were splashing. In a hundred 
forests at once the axes of the pioneers were 
sounding. On a hundred prairies at once the raw, 
rank sod was being torn by rude plows. In a 

205 



2o6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

hundred valleys at once the smoke of camp fires 
and new cabins were rising. It was such a 
pageant, such a vast moving picture, as no eye 
has ever seen on screen or canvas. 

By 1792 there were so many settlements in the 
Blue Grass country that Kentucky was made a 
state. In ten years more Ohio was admitted to 
the Union. Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri soon 
proudly claimed their thousands, and before 
Monroe retired from the Presidency they all had 
donned their robes of statehood and wrought their 
stars into the flag. 

Thousands of Virginia's sons and daughters 
went out from the old state into the new states ; 
and thousands from Maryland, Pennsylvania, 
and North Carolina passed through Virginia on 
their journeys westward. 

Nature has cut three huge gateways to the 
West through Virginia. Of these let us speak. 
One is at the northeast ; one is at the southwest ; 
and one is near the center. 

The great gateway at the northeast is the channel 
of the Potomac River. Alexandria, Winchester, 
Harper's Ferry, and Frederick City, Maryland, 
are near the eastern openings of this gateway. 
Cumberland, Maryland, lies far up the channel 
in the mountains — almost at the western edge 
of the Alleghanies. It was by this northeast 
gateway that George Washington went west and 



THE GATEWAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 207 




2o8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

north in 1753, when he carried Governor Din- 
widdle's message to the French. By this same 
gateway General Braddock, too, went west with 
his army in 1755, in the fateful days that led up 
to the tragedy near Fort Duquesne. The same 
course was followed for many years by Virginians 
who traveled out to Pittsburg and other places in 
the upper Ohio Valley. . » 

Along the Potomac for many miles a canal was 
dug, for Washington and other leaders planned 
thus to unite the headwaters of the Potomac 
and the headwaters of the Ohio. Boats still 
run on this old canal along the Potomac. It was 
from Cumberland that the great national high- 
way was built, leading westward into Ohio and 
Indiana ; and later still it was up the Potomac 
Valley that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
pushed, cutting its way westward through the 
Alleghanies. 

The great central gateway through the moun- 
tains opens westward from Staunton and Lex- 
ington, through Buffalo Gap and Goshen Pass. 
Further on it follows the Greenbriar River for 
a number of miles till the Greenbriar and the New 
River unite to form the Great Kanawha ; then 
westward it follows the Great Kanawha into the 
broad Ohio Valley. It was by this central gate- 
way that General Andrew Lewis and his army 
went out in 1774 when they defeated the Indians 



THE GATEWAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 209 

in the battle of Point Pleasant. And it is this 
same central pass that the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Railroad follows to-day, past Staunton, Clifton 
Forge, and Covington westward. 

Another entrance to this central gateway comes 
up the New River from North Carolina, past 
Wytheville and Radford. 

At Radford in olden days was a noted ferry 
across New River. For many years it was known 
as Ingles's Ferry. Mrs. Mary Draper Ingles, 
whose escape from the Indians is referred to in 
Chapter XVI, lived during her later years at or 
near this ferry. Her monument now looks down 
upon the river from a near-by hilltop. 

Several routes of travel centered at or near 
Radford. At Ingles's Ferry and another ferry 
only a few miles farther down the stream these 
routes of travel crossed New River. There parties 
of emigrants were often seen moving north or 
south. Parties moving east or west also came to 
the same place, for there they could cross New 
River. All the way from Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, up through the long Shenandoah 
Valley, then across the upper James Valley by 
Lexington and Buchanan, and so on past Roanoke 
and Radford, into the South or into the West, the 
emigrant wagons went slowly but unceasingly on. 

Many of the pioneers and travelers passed by 
the northern gatew^ay and the central gateway, 



2IO 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



going on to the third great pass, the one in the far 
southwest — Cumberland Gap. Of all the three 
famous gateways that we are considering, Cum- 
berland Gap is perhaps the most celebrated. 

It is a huge notch — a deep saddle — in the 
towering Cumberland Mountain. In the gap, at 
a certain point, a man can put his feet in one 



CUMBERLAND GAP 

AND ADJACENT REGIONS OF 

VIRGINIA. NORTH CAROLINA. 

TENNESSEE, AND KENTUCKY 

Scale of M lies 

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State and his hands in two others ; for it is there, 
on the northern line of Tennessee, that the western 
tip of Virginia ends, driven like a wedge under the 
broad shoulder of Kentucky. 

What the Indians called this gap we do not 
know ; but in 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker of eastern 
Virginia, with a few companions, passed through 
it, going westward. A few miles beyond it they 



THE GATEWAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 211 

found the headwaters of a great river. Dr. 
Walker named the huge notch Cumberland Gap, 
after the EngHsh Duke of Cumberland ; and the 
great stream of water he called Cumberland River. 

Let us be careful to distinguish Cumberland 
Gap and Cumberland River and Cumberland 
Mountain and the town of Cumberland Gap from 
the city of Cumberland, Maryland, which lies 
in the great northeast gateway. Let us also 
remember that W^alker's Mountain, which lies 
north of Radford and Wytheville, was named in 
honor of Dr. Thomas Walker. Powell Mountain 
and Powell River in Lee County take their name 
from one of Dr. Walker's companions. 

Cumberland Mountain divides Virginia and 
Kentucky for many miles, running northeast 
from Cumberland Gap. Somewhere on Cumber- 
land Mountain, between Wise County, Virginia, 
and Harlan County, Kentucky, is the "Trail of 
the Lonesome Pine." 

In olden days a long Indian trail, called "War- 
rior's Path," came down from the Ohio Valley, 
two hundred miles, to Cumberland Gap. For 
the war parties of the dusky tribes of Ohio passed 
through the gap as they roamed far south seeking 
the scalps of enemies. Bands of hunters and 
companies of friendly visitors also used this 
giant's gateway in the days when Indians and 
buffaloes were plentiful. 



212 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

A few years after Dr. Walker first visited south- 
west Virginia, a Shawnee chief from Ohio won a 
Cherokee bride in eastern Tennessee and led her 
home. She may have been "a captive maid," 
from a "land of sky-blue water." The beautiful 
Cherokee rose, it is said, was carried from Ten- 
nessee to Ohio by that Cherokee bride. Almost 
certainly her journey north, whether she carried 
the rose plant or not, led through Cumberland 
Gap. It is quite certain that her husband was 
killed in the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 and 
that one of her sons became renowned in American 
history. His name was Tecumseh. 

In 1749 or thereabouts, when Daniel Boone 
was a boy, his parents moved from Pennsylvania 
to western North Carolina. They crossed the 
Potomac River and followed the beaten trail 
through the long valley of Virginia on down to 
New River, it may be. Either at Roanoke or 
Radford, we may be pretty certain, they turned 
southward, leaving the valley of Virginia on the 
right, and finally crossed the North Carolina 
borders into the valley of the Yadkin. 

Later, when Boone made his famous expeditions 
into Kentucky, he went out from the Yadkin 
Valley of North Carolina. On his way back and 
forth he passed through Cumberland Gap. Dr. 
Walker and his party, during the six months they 
were out in 1750, killed thirteen buffaloes, eight 



THE GATEWAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 213 

elks, fifty-three bears, twenty deer, four wild 
geese, and about one hundred and fifty wild tur- 
keys. We can only guess at the number of animals 
and birds that Boone killed. But we should 
remember this : Powder and lead were hard to 
get in Boone's day, so we may be certain that he 
did not waste either. And we should also re- 
member that Boone's life often depended on his 
having a full powderhorn and a heavy bullet- 
pouch. 

In Boone's day the trail leading from Virginia, 
North Carolina, and Tennessee through Cumber- 
land Gap into Kentucky was called the "Wilder- 
ness Road." Soon it was beaten hard by the feet 
of men and the hoofs of beasts, tramping in 
endless procession every summer toward the 
fertile valleys in the Blue Grass regions of Ken- 
tucky. It is estimated that 75,000 pioneers went 
west through Cumberland Gap before the rough 
trail was wide enough for wagons. 

Cumberland Gap is well worth a visit to-day. 
The wooded mountains tower up hundreds of 
feet on either side, with crags protruding and 
ledges overhanging. Across the deep-cut saddle 
between the peaks winds the road — a good road 
now — over which wagons and automobiles are 
continually passing. Halfway up the eastern 
incline the highway passes a big spring. The 
water gushes out from a cave in the mountain 



214 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

side and leaps down the rugged slope. The 
supply is ample for the town of Cumberland Gap 
below. We can picture Daniel Boone drinking 
at this spring one day, and Tecumseh's mother 
the next. The spot must have been a welcome 
resting-place for all the weary emigrants who 
passed that way. 

At many points along the highway, as one 
ascends the slope, traces of an older road may be 
discerned. It was the older road, no doubt, that 
Boone and others followed in pioneer days. 

At the summit of the gap, where the road 
crosses the divide into Kentucky, stands a monu- 
ment to Daniel Boone. It is massive and four- 
square. It was erected by the patriotic societies 
of four states : Virginia, Kentucky, North 
Carolina, and Tennessee. Many states honor 
Boone, because the ancestors of thousands who 
now live in the prosperous and cultured West 
once followed his lead on the Wilderness Road. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. After the Revolution people from Virginia and other 
old states began to move west in large numbers and join 
in building up new states. 

2. Virginia has three great natural highways to the west : 
One along the Potomac River, one along the Kanawha River, 
and a third through Cumberland Gap. 

3. Of these three, the one through Cumberland Gap is 
perhaps the most celebrated. 



THE GATEWAY IN THE MOUNTAINS 215 

4. So far as we know, Dr. Thomas Walker was the first 
Virginian to go through Cumberland Gap. 

5. The most famous explorer and pioneer associated with 
Cumberland Gap was Daniel Boone. 



PUPIL'S READINGS 

Allen: North Carolina History Stories; Book III, pages 
15-22. 

Chandler and Chitwood : Makers of American History; 
pages 121-128. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Bruce : Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road ; pages 
loi-iii; 281-300. 

Semple : American History and Its Geographic Condi- 
tions; pages 54-74. 

Summers: History of Southwest Virginia; pages 48-51. 

Thwaites : Daniel Boone; pages 13-34. 

Suggestions. — i. In connection with this chapter sketch 
a large outline map on the blackboard. Locate each of the 
famous gateways in red. Blue chalk may be used for the 
rivers. 

2. Particular pupils might impersonate Dr. Walker, 
Andrew Lewis, Washington, Braddock, Boone, and the Indian 
maid who was later the mother of Tecumseh. 

3. The two beautiful songs, "From the Land of the Sky- 
Blue Water" and "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," could 
be appropriately introduced in connection. The former is 
said to be an Indian song. If the latter is used be sure to 
point out the fact that the trail of the "Lonesome Pine" is 
not in the "Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia." Both songs 
may be had on phonograph records. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

RUMSEY AND McCORMICK 

In the preceding chapter we have seen how the 
people of Virginia and other states began to go 
west more than a hundred years ago and build 
up new states along the Ohio and other great 
rivers. The giant gateways that nature had cut 
in the mountains enabled them to pass through. 
But nature did not do everything for them that 
was necessary. The genius and patience of man 
had to do their part also ; and before long two 
Virginians did two things that helped the people 
of the West mightily. One made a steamboat ; 
the other made a machine to cut wheat. 

By means of steamboats the settlers could carry 
their goods up the rivers as well as down. By 
means of the reaper they were able to take care 
of larger and larger wheat crops. Both of these 
inventions, therefore, aided tremendously in the 
growth of the country. 

In 1807 Robert Fulton began to run a steamboat 
on the Hudson River. In 181 1 Nicholas Roose- 
velt began to run one on the Ohio. But in 1787, 
just twenty years before Fulton's success, James 

216 



RUMSEY AND McCORMICK 



217 



Rumsey built a steamboat at Shepherdstown, 
Virginia, and ran it there on the Potomac River. 
During several years prior to 1787 Rumsey had 
been experiment- 
ing with steam- 
boats at or near 
Shepherdstown. 

James Rumsey 
was a native of 
Maryland and 
had been a soldier 
in the Revolu- 
tion. About the 
close of the war 
he located at 
Shepherdstown. 
There, under the 
high wooded 
banks of the 
Potomac, hidden 
by the trees, he 
built a little shop 
and began to ex- 
periment with a 
small steam engine and a boat. In December, 
1787, he gave a demonstration of his steamboat 
before a large crowd of people. General Horatio 
Gates and other prominent citizens of the neigh- 
borhood were present. 




RUMSEY MONUMENT AT SHEPHERDSTOWN, 
WEST VIRGINIA 



2i8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

The demonstration was given at Horseshoe 
Bend, only a short distance above the place where 
the Norfolk and Western Railway now crosses 
the river. On the boat were Rumsey, Charles 
Morrow, and five or six ladies. It ran up and 
down the river at a rate of about four miles an 
hour. 

It was a notable success. Rumsey soon went 
to Philadelphia, where the Rumsey Society was 
formed, with Benjamin Franklin at its head, to 
raise funds for making the invention better. 
From Philadelphia Rumsey went to England. 
He built a steamboat at London and was just 
ready to run it there on the Thames River when 
debt and worry killed him. His body lies in St. 
Margaret's Chapel, not far from Westminster 
Abbey. 

At Shepherdstown the patriotic citizens have 
lately erected a splendid monument to Rumsey. 
It towers above the town from the high river 
bluff. Every afternoon, when the sun is shining, 
its long shadow falls out across the waters where 
the little steamboat puffed away that morning 
in December, 1787. A path that runs along the 
bank at Horseshoe Bend is still called Rumsey's 
Walk. 

From Rumsey the making of steamboats passed 
on to Fulton and others. In 181 1, as we have 
seen, a steamboat was running on the Ohio 



RUMSEY AND McCORMICK 



219 



River. In 1817 one appeared on the Great Lakes. 
In a few years more their paddle-wheels were churn- 
ing the waters of lakes and rivers everywhere. 
Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the reaper, 




A GRAIN CRADLE. CUTTING WHEAT WITH IT WAS FASTER THAN WITH 
THE SICKLE 

was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 
1809. His boyhood home. Walnut Grove, is near 
Raphine, on the line between the counties of 
Rockbridge and Augusta. 

McCormick as a boy had the notion that he 



220 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



could make a reaper. Often in his father's black- 
smith shop he could be found working away on 
bars and bolts and wheels. At last, in 183 1, he 
turned out a machine that really cut wheat. We 
say "At last"; but we say it only to remind 
ourselves that he succeeded after many failures. 
But it was worth a good many failures and dis- 




McCORMICK S FIRST REAPER. IT WAS CLUMSY ENOUGH, BUT IT WAS A GREAT 
IMPROVEMENT OVER THE SICKLE AND THE CRADLE 

appointments for a young fellow of twenty-two 
to make a reaper. 

And it was not the last by any means. He made 
others and he made better ones. In 1844 McCor- 
mick was shipping reapers West on wagons, canal 
boats, and steamboats. In 1846 he started a 
factory in Chicago. In 1851 his machine won a 
prize in England, and in 1867 another in France. 
It was not many years till McCormick's reapers 
were known around the world. 



RUMSEY AND McCORMICK 221 

Mr. McCormick and his descendants became 
very wealthy, and they were thoughtful enough 
to use their money wisely. Much of it they sent 
back to old Virginia, to endow great schools for the 
education of young people. Thus, and in many 
ways, the boats that plow the rivers and the 
machines that reap the fields add not only to the 
world's wealth but also to the treasures of the 
human spirit. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Nature opened gates in the mountains for the settlers 
to pass through on their way to the West, but man had to 
make boats to go up the rivers and machines to reap the 
fields. 

2. James Rumsey made a successful steamboat at 
Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1787. 

3. Robert Fulton and others, who later made better 
steamboats, owed much to Rumsey. 

4. Cyrus McCormick made a successful reaper in Rock- 
bridge County, Virginia, in 1831. 

5. In a few years McCormick's reapers were being used 
in many states and countries. 

6. The steamboat and the reaper aided the growth of our 
country tremendously. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler and Chitwood : Makers of American History; 
pages 247-254. 

Magill : History of Virginia; pages 237-239. 



222 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Dandridge : Historic Shepherdstown ; pages 267-277. 

Thwaites : Cyrus Hall McCorniick and the Reaper; 
Proceedings of State Historical Society of Wisconsin for 
1908, pages 234-259. 

Washington and Lee University : The Southern Collegian; 
March, 1909. 

Note. — For a graphic account of the difficulties of boat- 
ing on the big rivers before the use of steamboats see pages 
84-90 of J. E. Kirkpatrick's "Timothy Flint," published 
in 191 1 by the Arthur H. Clark Co., Cleveland, Ohio. 



CHAPTER XXX 



"THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" 

Under a canopy not far from the state capl- 
tol In Richmond stands a marble statue. This 
statue represents a 
tall, rather slender 
man, whose face was 
perhaps not hand- 
some but which was 
capable of wonderful 
expression and whose 
eyes were like kind- 
ling stars. 

That man was one 
of Virginia's greatest 
sons. In his earlier 
life, after he had be- 
come famous, he 
was frequently called 
"The Mill Boy of 
the Slashes." In his 

later life he was often termed "The Great Peace- 
Maker." His real name was Henry Clay. 

Henry Clay was born not far from Richmond, 
in old Hanover County — the county in which 

223 




HENRY CLAY, A GREAT MAN WITH TWO 
OR THREE NICKNAMES 



224 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Patrick Henry was born and in which he first 
won fame. The old courthouse in which Henry 
argued against the parsons and the king in 1763 
still remains. Clay was born during the Revo- 
lution — in 1777. In that year Patrick Henry 
was forty-one years of age and was governor of 
Virginia. 

Clay's old home was in a district known as "The 
Slashes," and frequently he went on horseback to 
mill, carrying the wheat or the corn in a bag 
slung across the horse, and returning with flour 
or meal carried in the same manner. Hence he 
was afterwards nicknamed "The Mill Boy of the 
Slashes." 

At fourteen Clay got a job in a Richmond store. 
The next year he was made assistant to the clerk of 
one of the state courts. All the time, in every 
spare moment, the boy was reading and studying. 
And he was so careful and exact in his writing that 
the chief judge of the court often employed him 
in the copying of papers and in the preparatiori 
of addresses. 

This judge was the famous George Wythe, the 
man with whom Thomas Jefferson and John 
Marshall had studied law. No wonder, then, that 
Clay too studied law. As examples he had before 
him many great men, and as a friend and guide 
he had Chancellor Wythe himself. 

In 1797, when Clay was between twenty and 



"THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" 225 

twenty-one, he was given his hcense as a lawyer. 
The same year he moved to Kentucky. There, 
in the Blue Grass region, near the town of Lexing- 
ton, he made his home till his death in 1852. But 
he was still a son of Virginia and he was always a 
friend and a servant of the whole country. 

For more than fifty years Clay was active in 
public life. In the legislature of Kentucky, in the 
Congress of the United States at Washington, in 
the President's cabinet, he was always a leader 
who inspired great deeds, always a statesman of 
practical wisdom, always a personal friend of 
rare grace and charm. Four times he was a 
candidate for the Presidency, and although he 
was never made President his place in American 
history is honored and secure. 

He saw the formation of the Union, the settle- 
ment of the West, and the incoming of one new 
state after another until the stars upon the flag 
had increased from thirteen to thirty-one. He 
knew Patrick Henry and John Marshall, George 
Mason and George Wythe, Calhoun of the South 
and Webster of the North, Washington and 
Jefferson, Madison and. Monroe, and eight or nine 
more of the early Presidents. He was prominent 
in Congress during the War of 1812. In 1823, 
when the Monroe Doctrine was first proclaimed. 
Clay was already famous. He was a boy of ten 
when Rumsey proved his steamboat at Shepherds- 



226 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



town and a man of fifty when our first railroads 
were built. For many years he rode on stage 
coaches and perhaps canal boats, but he lived 
long enough to see railroads in Kentucky and in 
twenty other states. 

He heard the news about McCormick's first 
reaper, and he may have stopped to see the young 




A RAILROAD TRAIN OF 183O 



inventor on one of his trips through the Valley 
of Virginia, as he traveled to Washington or back 
from Washington to Kentucky. At any rate, 
during the twenty years from 1831 to 1851 he 
saw how wonderfully the reaper was aiding the 
farmers of our land. He also remembered the in- 
vention of the cotton gin, the telegraph, and the 
sewing machine. Until he was nearly sixty years 
old he never saw a match, but then he saw the 



"THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" 227 

little magic sticks coming into use, displacing flint 
and steel and fire-glasses. 

He heard the "Star-Spangled Banner" sung 
not long after it was written. He probably saw 
Lafayette on his last visit to the United States 
in 1824. About 1840 he may have read in a news- 
paper how ships were crossing the Atlantic Ocean 
by means of steam power alone ; how improved 
threshing machines were being used in many of 
our wheat fields ; and how Chicago had grown 
from a village to a city in ten years. In 1846 
and 1847 he must have been much concerned 
over the w^r that the United States was having 
with Mexico, and in 1848 he heard the thrilling 
news of the discovery of gold in California. Two 
years later he helped to pass through Congress the 
famous bill by which California was made a state. 

No history of Virginia could be complete with- 
out the story of Henry Clay, for he was a great 
Virginian and a great American. We introduce 
him at this point for four special reasons. First, 
in going from Virginia to Kentucky in his early 
life (probably by way of Cumberland Gap and the 
Wilderness Road) he gives an example of that 
great westward movement of our people which 
we have been studying. Second, his lifetime, 
following the Revolution, covered the fifty or 
sixty years in which our new nation found Its 
great strength through a marvelously rapid growth. 



228 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Third, Clay was a leading figure in many of the 
great achievements that mark our state and 
national history from 1800 to 1850. Fourth, in 
the great differences that began to distress our 
country during this period of growth, Clay was the 
Great Peace-Maker. 

The men who believed that the federal govern- 
ment ought to be strengthened continually at the 



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ASHLAND, THE HOME OF HENRY CLAY 



expense of state rights argued sharply in Congress 
with those who were anxious to preserve state 
rights at any cost. Thus there were differences 
in Congress. The factory-owners of the North 
and East, who had manufactured goods to sell, 
wanted a protective tariff — a tax on goods 



"THE MILL BOY OF THE SLASHES" 229 

brought in from other countries. The farmers of 
the South and West did not want a protective 
tariff, because they had manufactured goods to 
buy. Thus there were differences between the 
farmers and the factory men. Many people of 
the North and East wanted to abohsh negro 
slavery, because they had ceased to find it profit- 
able. Many planters and slave-dealers in the 
South wanted to keep up slavery, because they 
still thought that it was profitable. Thus there 
were geographical differences — differences be- 
tween different sections of the country. North and 
South. 

Clay worked hard, time and time again, to adjust 
these differences. He did not succeed in any 
lasting way ; but if it had not been for him the 
terrible war that finally resulted from those differ- 
ences would probably have come much sooner 
than it did. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Henry Clay was born in Virginia. During most of 
his life his home was in Kentucky. Most of his work as a 
statesman was done at Washington. 

2. Within Clay's lifetime, especially from 1800 to 1850, 
our country grew rapidly. New states were added to the 
Union, roads, railroads, and steamboats were built, and new 
inventions were made. 

3. While the country was growing, great differences were 
also growing up among the people. 



230 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

4. Those differences of opinion led to quarrels and finally 
to war, though Clay and other great men worked for peace. 

5. For thirty years or more Clay was the Great Peace- 
Maker. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler and Chitwood : Makers of American History; 
pages 225-232. 

Perry and Price : American History ; Second Book, pages 
109-151. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Alderman and Kent: Library of Southern Literature; 
Vol. HI, pages 937-977. 

Dickson: American History ; pages 314-364. 

McElroy : Kentucky in the Nation's History ; Chapter 
XIV. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 

In 1809, as we learned in Chapter XXVI, 
Thomas Jefferson retired from the Presidency and 
returned to his home on the httle mountain in 
Albemarle County, Virginia. This little moun- 
tain (Monticello) is about three miles east of the 
city of Charlottesville. Jefferson was born near 
the foot of Monticello. So were George Rogers 
Clark and Meriwether Lewis. 

When Jefferson was still a young man, only 
about twenty-eight years old, he built a fine brick 
house on the top of the little mountain. The 
house is still standing there and may be seen from 
the valleys below when the day is clear and the 
trees are bare of leaves. The house itself is 
sometimes referred to as Monticello. 

All his long life Jefferson was a builder. About 
1771 he built Monticello. In 1776, by writing 
the Declaration of Independence, he helped to 
build the United States. At the same time, and 
through many years thereafter, he aided actively 
in building a good government for Virginia. In 
1803, by the purchase of the Louisiana territory, 

231 



232 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

he built up a vast domain for our nation in the 
West. 

And in his old age Mr. Jefferson built the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. 

He thought of our schools as the real foundation 
of the state. He believed that good government 
depends upon good citizenship ; and he did not 
believe that boys and girls can grow up to be the 
best citizens unless they have good schools and 
good teachers. 

And as we study the history of Virginia we 
cannot help seeing how important our schools have 
been in the life of the state. The small schools 
with only one room and one teacher each, scattered 
among the valleys and the hills ; the high schools, 
academies, and colleges, in the villages, towns, 
and cities ; and the universities, few but great, 
all have performed their tasks of service and de- 
serve their crowns of honor. 

In Chapter X we outlined the story of William 
and Mary College. In other connections we shall 
learn something of Washington and Lee Univer- 
sity, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Poly- 
technic Institute, the state normal schools, and 
other famous institutions ; but in this chapter we 
shall devote ourselves especially to the University 
of Virginia. 

It was 1 819, ten years after Mr. Jefferson came 
back to Monticello, before he got a bill through 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 233 

the legislature of Virginia establishing the uni- 
versity ; and it was 1825 before the school was 
opened to students. It took long years of think- 
ing and working to get the necessary laws. Then 
it took half a dozen more years of thinking and 
working to get the necessary buildings. But 
Mr. Jefferson was a thinker and a worker, even to 
the end. When the university at last was opened 
he was almost eighty-two, but he lived another 
year — long enough,. we believe, to find great joy 
in his achievement. 

The university is situated on a hill above the 
town. The hill slopes toward the east, toward 
the town, toward Monticello. From Monticello 
one may see the town and the university beyond 
it. Mr. Jefferson, it is said, would often sit at 
home and watch the building operations through a 
telescope. Certain it is that he would frequently 
mount his horse and ride over through Charlottes- 
ville to the very spot where the broken ground 
showed red and the work was going on. He had 
drawn the plans for the grounds and for the build- 
ings — he was careful to see that his plans were 
carried out. He also outlined the courses of study 
which were followed for many years. Even to-day 
at the university, after a century has passed, the 
spirit of Mr. Jefferson seems still to linger, whis- 
pering of truth and beauty. 

The history of the University of Virginia can 



234 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



never be written in full. Its influence has ex- 
tended so widely, through so many thousands of 
its sons, that no man can trace or compass it ; 
and if it could be done for to-day or for yesterday, 
the story would be changed to-morrow. 




THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. THE CENTRAL BUILDING WITH THE ROTUNDA 
IS THE LIBRARY 

One of the first students at the university was 
Edgar Allan Poe, that strange, sad genius who 
wrote "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee." An- 
other 3^oung poet who came a few years later was 
John R. Thompson, the author of "Music in 
Camp" and "The Battle Rainbow." Another 
early student was Elisha Kent Kane, who soon 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 235 

became famous as an Arctic explorer. Walter 
Reed came later still, graduated in medicine, and 
then went out to lead in the splendid winning fight 
against yellow fever. He is typical of those 
other heroic doctors from Virginia who have 
given their lives for the health of the world. A 
few years ago came Woodrow Wilson, whom the 
world now knows. He is typical of those up- 
right scholars and statesmen who have devoted 
their talents and their courage to justice and 
humanity. 

And yesterday, so to speak, came James 
McConnell. A statue to his memory now adorns 
the campus. First he wrote a book, "Flying for 
France" ; and then shortly he proved that dying 
for France is a still finer thing when France means 
right and honor. "With death's shadow on his 
forehead and life's wonder in his eyes" he is 
typical of all those young men who, in 1861, in 
1917, and at other times, went out from Virginia 
when duty stirred their souls and pointed toward 
the fixed stars. 

The University of Virginia is the head of the 
public school system of the state. It is conducted 
under state authority and is supported mainly 
by state funds, though many splendid gifts have 
come from alumni and other friends. Within 
recent years, especially, it has been put into 
helpful touch with all the public high schools of 



236 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

the state, and its department of education is 
sending out each year a number of trained teachers. 

In founding the university and in operating it the 
first year or so Mr. Jefferson was aided in many 
ways by James Madison and James Monroe, both 
of whom Hved near Charlottesville. In the old 
minute book, in which was written down from 
time to time what the Board of Visitors (trustees) 
did, may be seen to-day the signatures of those 
three great men — Jefferson, Madison, and 
Monroe. That old book is one of the university's 
treasures. 

There are at the university many things that 
are highly prized, but the one thing that is doubt- 
less cherished most of all is the honor system. 
Under the rules of this system the students them- 
selves see to it that every man, as far as possible, 
is fair and square on examinations and stands 
for just and upright conduct generally. Many 
schools to-day embody the honor system, but the 
University of Virginia was a pioneer in it. The 
university was one of the first great schools to 
adopt the honor system and has ever been one of 
the foremost in maintaining it. 

If there is one thing that the university prizes 
more than the honor system of the student it is 
the honor spirit of the man. 

Mr. Jefferson perhaps did nothing in his life 
that meant more to him than did the founding of 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 237 

the university. When he died, July 4, 1826, some 
one found a paper on which he had written the 
very words that he wanted on his tombstone. 
They were these : 

Here was buried 

Thomas JefFerson 

Author of the Declaration of American Independence 

of the Statute of Virginia for reHgious freedom 

& Father of the University of Virginia 

By these things most he wished to be re- 
membered. And so, when the Sage of Monti- 
cello was buried, halfway down the little mountain, 
the few simple words he had written, with the 
dates of his birth and death, were cut upon the 
stone. There they may be seen to-day. The 
visitor reads them and then turns his gaze west- 
ward toward the hill of the Sage's dreams, where 
the white arcades of the famous school gleam 
faintly through the trees. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Thomas JefFerson devoted the last ten or fifteen years 
of his life to education — particularly to founding the Uni- 
versity of Virginia. 

2. In this splendid work he was aided by Madison, Monroe, 
and other great Virginians. 

3. The university was chartered in 1819 and first opened 
to students in 1825. 

4. It is the head of the public school system of Virginia. 



238 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

5. The honor system and the honor spirit have been main- 
tained by the university students for many years. 

6. Jefferson regarded the founding of the university as 
one of the greatest things he ever did. 

7. He beheved that good government depends on good 
citizenship, and that our people cannot be the best citizens 
without good schools and good teachers. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Cooke: Stories of the Old Dominiop ; pages 183-192. 
Wayland : History Stories ; pages 1 1 9-1 21. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 233-246. 

Culbreth : The University of Virginia; Chapter V. 

Page: The Old Dominion: Her Making and Her Man- 
ners; pages 198-234. 

Patton and Doswell : The University of Virginia : Past 
and Present. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
TURNPIKES AND STAGE COACHES 

In those days of rapid growth from 1800 to 1850 
and i860 roads were of tremendous importance, 
and many were built within that time. After 
1807 steamboats were running on many of the 
rivers. Canals were dug along some of the streams 
where steamboats could not run. Railroads were 
constructed here and there after 1830 ; but all the 
time, nearly everyAvhere, wagon roads were needed. 
For canal boats, steamboats, and railway trains 
cannot run across hills and mountains. And 
even in the valleys people had to use wagons for 
a long time before boats and trains appeared. 
Even to-day our ordinary wagon roads are very 
necessary. 

At first roads were merely widened paths 
through the forests and across the plains. In 
many places they followed the trails of the Indians 
and the buffaloes. Often they were full of stumps 
and mud holes. After a while, when the country 
became more thickly settled and the farmers had 
a little more time for improving roads, they began 
to dig out the stumps and to fill up the holes. 

239 



240 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Then sometimes they would try to fix the surface 
of the road so that it would not get muddy in the 
rainy seasons. 

One of the ways they did this was by plating 
the road with planks or logs. They would cut 
thousands of heavy slabs or small logs, each one 
of just the right length to reach across the road. 
Then these slabs or logs were laid crosswise on 
the road, one close against the other, often for miles 
and miles. Timber was so plentiful in those days 
that the logs could frequently be cut right beside 
the road. 

Such a road was called a plank road or a cor- 
duroy road. It was somewhat rough and kept 
a wagon bumping and jolting all the time, very 
much like a city street that is paved with cobble- 
stones, but it was very much better than a dirt 
road full of stumps and mud holes. Traces of 
those wood-plated roads may still be found in 
many parts of eastern Virginia. For example, 
at the Germanna ford of the Rapidan River we 
find the Culpeper Plank Road crossing from Cul- 
peper County into Orange ; and just outside the 
city of Petersburg, going past Blandford Church 
and the Crater, one may follow the Jerusalem 
Plank Road. 

A better kind of road was made by plating the sur- 
face of the track with gravel or finely broken stones. 
Roads of this kind, known as macadam roads, 



TURNPIKES AND STAGE COACHES 241 

are still popular. In the western parts of the 
state, especially, where stones are plentiful, many 
rock-plated roads were built prior to 1850. For 
example, between 1830 and 1840 the famous 
Valley Turnpike, leading from Winchester to 
Harrisonburg and Staunton, was constructed. 
It follows in many places, we are told, the old 
trail of the Indians and the buffaloes — the same 
trail that was followed by the Boones, the Lin- 
colns, the Bryans, the Lewises, and other pioneers 
in going up and down the valley. Henry Clay 
traveled over this road on his journeys back and 
forth between his Kentucky home and Washington 
City. Miss Mary Johnston in her splendid book, 
**The Long Roll," gives a fine description of this 
road as it was during the Civil War and of the 
way in which the soldiers regarded it on their long 
marches, following Stonewall Jackson and other 
leaders. 

Another well-known road of this sort led from 
Harrisonburg eastward across the Blue Ridge 
at Swift Run Gap, past Stanardsville and Gordons- 
ville, to Richmond. This road was macadamized 
at the western end, for twenty miles or more, but 
at the eastern end it may have been a plank road. 

On many of those old roads in the times of which 
we speak stage coaches ran regularly for the 
accommodation of travelers. If tolls were col- 
lected at certain places, say every five miles along 



242 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



the way, for the purpose of getting money to keep 
the road in repair, the road was called a turnpike. 
Turnpikes and stage coaches were familiar and 
necessary factors in the life of our people for many 
years. 




STAGE COACH AND TAVERN 



The stages ran on definite schedules, day and 
night. At certain places along the road fresh 
horses were ready, and as soon as they were 
hitched up in place of the tired ones the driver 
would mount his high seat, take up the lines, 
crack his long whip, and off the heavy stage would 



TURNPIKES AND STAGE COACHES 243 

go, rocking and rattling upon its way. Each 
stage was usually drawn by four horses. At the 
relay stations there were inns or taverns, often 
rude log houses with wide fireplaces, big dining 
rooms, and gangs of servants. As time went on 
the log taverns were replaced with structures of 
stone and brick. At these wayside inns teamsters 
and horseback riders, as well as stage-drivers and 
stage passengers, would stop for meals and lodging. 

In many places it was customary for the stage- 
driver to give a signal as he approached a tavern 
or a village by tooting on a bugle or a long tin 
horn. The driver knew everybody along the way, 
carried messages and packages, and was generally 
depended upon to tell all the news from place to 
place. 

Often the inside of the coach was too small to 
hold all the passengers. Then somebody had a 
chance to sit up on the high seat outside with the 
driver. If there were a few more persons to go 
they were perched on top of the stage, with the 
extra trunks and boxes. It was wonderful how 
many people and how many packages one of those 
old stages could carry. Inside was the chief place 
of comfort, to be sure ; but the driver's seat, the 
box under his seat, the top of the coach, encircled 
with a low railing, and the "boot" that extended 
out from the rear, all seemed capacious enough 
for the proper persons and things. 



244 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 




NATURAL BRIDGE 



TURNPIKES AND STAGE COACHES 245 

Only a few years ago one of those old-time 
stage coaches was kept at the Natural Bridge 
as a rare curiosity. Once in a while it was brought 
out when a large party had to be met at the rail- 
way station. Then the young folks of the party 
had a chance to see what sort of vehicles their 
grandfathers and grandmothers traveled in in 
ante-bellum days. 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. The period between 1800 and i860 was a time of growth 
and building. 

2. Steamboats, canals, and railroads all became important 
within that period. 

3. But before that time and during all that time wagon 
roads were a necessity. So they are to-day. 

4. Some of the better roads were called turnpikes, and 
on them stage coaches ran regularly. 

5. Much of the travel before the Civil War depended on 
turnpikes and stage coaches. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Pleasants: Old Virginia Days and Ways; pages 149-155. 
Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 223-232. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Page : The Old Dominion : Her Making and Her Man- 
ners; pages 335-348- 

Scott: History of Orange County ; pages 129-132. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 

In Chapters XV and XVI we got a few glimpses 
of life in Virginia prior to 1775 — before the 
Revolutionary War. In this chapter we shall 
try to see something of conditions prior to 1861 
— before the Civil War. The twenty-five or 
thirty years preceding 1861 are often referred to 
as "ante-bellum days." 

Life in Virginia '*befo' de wah" was rich, restful, 
and gay with varied charms, yet troubled now 
and then by shadows of the great differences and 
the rumblings of a coming storm. Boys and girls 
living now can hardly understand it, but perhaps 
we can enter into it best through the verses and 
the stories of those who knew it and who have 
written of it with a grace and charm that seem to 
come of other times and other lands. 

We Virginians of to-day are fortunate in having 
the books of John Esten Cooke, Thomas Nelson 
Page, Armistead C. Gordon, Mrs. Sally Pleasants, 
and others to make us see and feel what Vir- 
ginia was in the days of our fathers. They have 
left us rich legacies. We cherish the good, we 

246 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 247 

recognize the changes that war and time have 
wrought, and we rejoice in the courage that comes 
to us from them and stirs our hearts for our own 
Virginia — the Virginia of to-day and to-morrow. 

In the chapter just preceding this one we learned 
that during ante-bellum days many Virginia 
roads were plated with macadam or with cordu- 
roy. But we must understand that "many'* 
here does not mean a majority. Most of the roads 
in old Virginia were trails of dust in dry weather 
and troughs lof mud in wet weather. Thus most 
of them reniained till recent years. Thomas 
Nelson Page sa3^s, "I once asked an old soldier,, 
who had been in Virginia all during the war, what 
had struck him most while in the South, and his 
instant reply was, *Mud ! Mud ! Mud !' " 

But the- good people of Tuckahoe and Tidewater 
went to courts and to musters at the proper times 
and to church every Sunday in spite of long dis- 
tances and in spite of mud or dust. In colonial 
days Virginians had been required by law to 
attend church. It was not so in ante-bellum 
days, but they went regularly nevertheless — from 
choice and habit. Sunday was generally a sacred 
day in old Virginia. From Mr. Page's home, in 
Hanover County, "Trinity" was four miles off 
and "Old Saint Martin's" ten miles, yet neither 
mud nor dust nor distance was allowed to bar the 
way. "When the roads became too bottomless 



248 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

for the ordinary teams," he says, "a pair of mules 
were hitched on in front of the carriage horses, 
and we went 'just the same.' " 

What Mr. Page says about bad roads and about 
the careful observance of Sunday might probably 



HAND-MADE COVERLET. MANY SUCH WERE WOVEN IN ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 
ON WOODEN LOOMS 

have been said with equal truth of most parts of 
the state. 

The people who lived west of the Blue Ridge 
often spoke of their neighbors east of the Ridge 
as Tuckahoes ; while the latter retaliated in good 
spirit by dubbing the Valley folks and others 
west of the Ridge, Cohees. The Cohees had fewer 
slaves and servants than the Tuckahoes, and as 
a rule, perhaps, smaller farms and smaller houses ; 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 249 

but they had bigger barns and a larger number of 
different churches. 

Let us see the reasons. 

In eastern Virginia most of the people were of 
one stock — English. Hence most of them were 
connected with a church that was well known in 
England ; for example, the Episcopal Church, the 
Baptist Church, or the Methodist Church. In 
western and southwestern Virginia the people 
were of various stocks — English, Scotch, Ger- 
man, Irish, etc. Accordingly, while there were 
Episcopal churches and^ Baptist churches and 
Methodist churches in the western and south- 
western sections of the state, there were also 
many others : Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, 
Mennonlte, Dunker, United Brethren, etc. 

In most of the cities and larger towns, both 
east and west, were congregations of Jews and 
Catholics. Quakers were found in a few localities. 

The differences in the size and style of barns 
were also due largely to differences of race ; partly 
to differences of climate and crops. The large 
barns of the Valley, two or three stories high, 
with the upper stories six or eight feet wider 
than the ground story, were built mainly by the 
German and Swiss farmers for the purpose of 
storing their crops of hay and wheat and for 
protecting their horses and cattle in winter. Many 
of the barns in eastern Virginia were used only for 



250 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



storing tobacco. In the milder climate of Tuck- 
ahoe and Tidewater live stock did not so much 
need shelter ; hence a simpler style of barn became 
the fashion there. 




Courtesy of Mr. Clifton Johnson. 

OLD STONE BRIDGE, BULL RUN BATTLEFIELD. SOME ANTE-BELLUM BRIDGES 
WERE BUILT LIKE THIS ONE OF STONE; OTHERS WERE MADE OF WOOD 



Distances were so great, roads as a rule were so 
bad, and traveling therefore was so slow, that 
much of the time of the better classes of people 
was spent on the roads. But not to waste time 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 251 

too much, various necessary tasks were sometimes 
put off till after the journey began. One lady, it 
is said, remembered vividly how, as a little girl 
going to visit her grandmother, she had been 
dressed in the carriage on the way. Whether 
her mother dressed her in the carriage to save 
time or only to keep the little girl's dress fresh and 
smooth till the arrival at grandma's, may be a 
question. A certain gentleman who wrote a bad 
hand explained it by saying that he, as a boy, 
had been given his writing lessons in the family 
carnage as it rocked and chucked along the 
country roads. At any rate, we may be certain 
that much of our grandparents' time was spent 
"going and coming," on horseback or in coach, 
carriage, or rockaway. 

Ladies rode horseback a great deal in those days, 
and special outfits were provided for them. Nearly 
every lady had her own "side-saddle," which was 
usually supplied with a double girth. The reins 
of her bridle were perhaps made of special light- 
weight leather, soft to the touch but strong and 
durable. And she was certain to have a huge 
riding-skirt, so long that it almost swept the 
ground as her horse leaped forward. If she was 
daring enough she wore a dainty spur or carried 
a keen whip. If a lady had no horse of her own 
or was traveling only a short distance she often 
rode behind her father or her husband or her 



252 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

brother on his horse. Most riding horses in those 
days were taught to carry double. 

If travehng in stage coaches and other carriages 
in ante-beUum days was slow and tiresome, we 
can well imagine how long it took to drive cattle to 
market and to haul flour, bacon, tobacco, and other 
goods to the distant towns. At certain seasons 
of the year cattle in great droves went plodding 
along the roads, for hundreds of miles, from the 
mountains toward the sea. The men who made 
a business of buying cattle and sheep and driving 
them to market were called drovers. "Droviers" 
many people termed them. Each night, if pos- 
sible, the drove was lodged in some farmer's 
pasture field, and perhaps fed with hay or grain. 
In the morning the gate was opened, the drove 
forced out, and the toilsome way resumed, till 
Baltimore or some other market town was reached. 

Sometimes the drovers would hire men and boys 
along the route to help in driving. The writer's 
father, when a boy, got his first trip to Washington 
City by helping to take down a drove of cattle — 
a hundred and twenty miles. Then he probably 
used up the next four or five days in walking back 
home. 

To lead the drove and keep it together a bell 
steer was sometimes led along the road in front. 
Now and then, if the steer was strong and tame, 
the driver would mount him and ride. When- 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 253 

ever a drove passed through a town or a village all 
the children would come out to watch it, especially 
if some man or boy was mounted on the leading ox. 

Wagoning was a big business in those days. 
This was hauling the farm products to market — 
to Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Scotts- 
ville, Petersburg, Richmond (whatever the market 
was) — and hauling back, in the same slow way, 
the sugar, coffee, salt, cloth, and other things that 
were received in exchange. Wheat was usually 
ground into flour at the neighborhood mill and 
barreled before it was hauled to market. Meat 
was salted and smoked, and then, as well-cured 
bacon, packed on the big wagon for' the jolting 
trip to the distant town. 

Often the wagoners spent a week or more on 
a trip. They usually carried their own rations 
and sometimes horse-feed too. Each evening 
as dusk came on they would stop beside a stream 
or at some favorite spring and camp for the night. 
In fine weather it was a fine life, but when the 
winds blew cold and the storms beat down it was 
about as rough a life as could well be thought of. 
There was usually a canvas tent stretched over 
the wagon body, but in a hard storm that was a 
poor shelter. The horses were nearly always ex- 
posed to wind and weather. 

People who lived on or near the rivers often 
built flatboats and on them floated their produce 



254 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



down to market. Sometimes these boats were 
built so far up the rivers that the water was too 
shallow to float them. In such cases the boats 
were loaded and made ready. A week or more 
was spent in waiting. Then there would come 
a rain and the water would rise. Down the river 




AN OLD WOODEN BRIDGE. A FEW SUCH STILL REMAIN IN VIRGINIA. THIS 
ONE WAS MORE THAN 200 FEET LONG, IN A SINGLE SPAN 



the boats would go, on the flood — on the "tide." 
When the market town was reached boat and all 
would be sold and the seller, with his m^oney in 
his pocket or his store goods on a neighbor's wagon, 
would walk back home. 

The hospitality of colonial Virginia was still 
kept up in ante-bellum days. Kinsfolk and friends 
would come often to the ''big house" of the planter 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 255 

and stay for days. Often a visit was extended 
for a month or two, and sometimes for a year or 
more. 

Mrs. Pleasants says : 

"My grandmother would pack her five younger 
daughters into a coach, and with driver, postihons, 
and maids go merrily off to spend the winter with 
her sisters and married daughters in Lower 
Virginia. When summer came these visits were 
duly returned." 

She also tells of a young married couple who 
started on a wedding trip, visiting their friends, 
and who did not get back home for years, if ever. 

It was not only the kinsman and the friend who 
were welcome at the "big house" — any traveler 
or wayfarer was always at liberty to ride in and 
stay for the day or the night : longer, if he so 
desired. The cabins and the quarters were full 
of servants ; the cribs and the bins were full of 
corn and wheat ; and the master's heart was full of 
welcome and kindness for all who were his guests. 

In the kitchens and in the cupboards also were 
abundance and variety. Mrs. Pleasants gives 
us an idea of how plentiful were good things to eat 
by quoting from a cook book called the "Virginia 
Housewife." She says that the recipes therein 
frequently began in this wise : "Take a quart 
of the richest cream"; or, "Break into a clean 
dish two dozen perfectly fresh eggs." 



256 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Evidently lack of supplies and high cost of living 
were unknown in the average old Virginia home. 
Of course, many families were poor, but most of 
them lived in the open country or on the out- 
skirts of a village where a garden, an orchard, 
a potato patch, and pasture for a cow were easily 
at hand. 

Big libraries were not common, but every 
home of the better class had at least a few books, 
and those of good character. Newspapers were 
few, but those few were carefully read. At the 
church on Sundays, at the county court on Mon- 
days, and at the "field of Mars" on muster days 
the men of old Virginia talked. They were fine 
talkers and they discussed with thoroughness the 
current problems of government, business, edu- 
cation, and religion. Some of them had studied 
at Princeton, Harvard, or Yale ; others at William 
and Mary, the University of Virginia, or some 
other Virginia college. The majority had not gone 
beyond the master of the neighborhood school, 
but he occasionally was a very good scholar. 
Public schools were maintained in each county for 
the poor, though they were charily attended, 
even by the poor. 

At a regular time each month or each quarter 
the men of military age (usually those from i8 
to 45) assembled under their captains to drill. 
Once a year came the general muster for the whole 



ANTE-BELLUM DAYS 257 

county — the "big muster." Then the negroes 
and the small boys were in their glory. For 
them it was equal to circus day. Sellers of whisky, 
beer, and ginger cakes took the place of those who 
now dispense whips, fans, and toy balloons. 

Training of officers began several days ahead. 
The colonel and the captains and the lieutenants 
all were there. Then on the appointed day the 
rank and file came in from far and near. Men of 
all sorts and sizes, some in tow-linen pants and 
shirts, often without coat or vest, might be seen. 
Some had on wool hats, others hats of straw. 
Now and then one wore a bright red sash or had 
his hat plumed gayly with a feather. Some wore 
yellow coats trimmed with black, others coats 
of green flannel trimmed with white or silver. 
Instead of guns some carried sticks, cornstalks, 
or even umbrellas. 

Doubtless the better trained companies of the 
towns and cities were well armed and well dressed 
in uniforms, but in the rural districts — and most 
of old Virginia was rural — not even the captains 
were always uniformed. The Colonel, the chief 
officer of the county militia, always or nearly 
always had on a showy uniform at musters and 
rode a fine horse. Stirring music was made on 
fife and drum. 

The uniforms, such as they were, had in many 
cases been used in the War of 18 12 or in the war 



258 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

with Mexico ; and the men — the men soon proved 
themselves again under Johnston and Lee, under 
Jackson, Stuart, and A. P. Hill. 



FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. By "ante-bellum days" we mean the twenty-five 
or thirty years preceding the Civil War. 

2. Those days were full of ease and plenty for the well- 
to-do, while hospitality was found everywhere, among rich 
and poor. 

3. Most of the roads were still in bad condition; there- 
fore travel on them was slow and difficult. 

4. The drovers and the wagoners in those days were al- 
most as important as the stage-drivers. 

5. Along the rivers where there were no steamboats or 
canal boats men often went to market in flatboats. 

6. Muster days, court days, and Sundays all meant much 
in old Virginia. 

7. The people were fond of pleasure and sports, but most 
of them kept the Sabbath holy. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Page : In Ole Virginia. 

Pleasants: Old Virginia Days and Ways; pages 37-62. 
Wayland : History of Rockingham County; pages 418- 
423- 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Hall: Half-Hours in Southern History; pages 105-126. 
Page : The Old Dominion : Her Making and Her Man- 
ners; pages 332-384- 
Page and Gordon : Befo' de War. 



PART V— VIRGINIA AND THE 
CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER XXXIV 
JOHN BROWN'S RAID 

John Brown's raid, which took place at 
Harper's Ferry in 1859, did much to make the 
North and the South angry over their differences, 
and therefore it helped to bring on the Civil War. 
In this war, which began in 1861 and lasted till 
1865, Virginia and the other Southern states 
fought on one side while the states of the North 
fought on the other side. Thus we see why it is 
often termed the War Between the States. 

It is also spoken of by many as the War for the 
Union, and so it was ; for the chief concern of the 
President and the Congress at Washington was to 
preserve the Union. Virginia had helped to build 
the Union, so Virginia v/as also concerned about 
preserving it, and she tried to withdraw from it 
only because she saw no other honorable course. 
As we go on in our study and as we grow older we 
shall see these things more clearly. Just now we 

259 



26o 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



shall see how John Brown began playing with fire, 
so to speak, when powder was near. 

By 1859 a number of things had happened to 
make the people, North and South, think of their 
differences — the differences we have outlined 
in Chapter XXX. Then, in October of that year, 



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HAKri K THE POTOMAC COMES DOWN FROM THE LEFT. THE 

SHENANDOAH COMES DOWN FROM THE RIGHT AND JOINS THE POTOMAC 

came John Brown's raid. Brown had already 
attracted a good deal of notice by his violent con- 
duct in Kansas and elsewhere, but nobody except 
a few people in the North knew his plans at Har- 
per's Ferry until he tried to seize that place. 

His plan was to take the town, arm the negro 
slaves, and thus get control of the country. His 



JOHN BROWN'S RAID 261 

object was to set the slaves free, even though he 
had to kill many of the white people in doing so. 
He tried to start his movement at Harper's Ferry 
because the United States government had a rifle 
factory there and he wanted the rifles and other 
supplies stored there for his army. 

He and about twenty men went to Harper's 
Ferry one Sunday night, seized several govern- 
ment buildings, set guards at the river bridges, 
and took a few leading citizens prisoners. This 
was about as far as he got ; for the negroes did not 
flock to his standard. On the other hand. Sheriff 
Avis (of Jefferson County) and local militia officers 
soon had force enough on hand to keep Brown 
and his men cooped up in the buildings they had 
seized. If there had been a better agreement 
between the sheriff's men and the militia. Brown 
and his party would soon have been taken ; for 
many of the farmers of the community were crack 
shots and some of them had been in the war with 
Mexico. As it was, the firing back and forth 
went on during the day. A few men on each side 
were killed or wounded ; but Brown and his 
main party still held out in a small brick building 
— the engine house. 

Brown and his men used Sharp's rifles. They 
were all alike and made a report so different from 
the reports of the various guns on the other 
side that listeners could tell, all day long, as one 



262 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

shot after another rang out, from which side it 
came. 

Sometime Monday night a company of United 
States marines arrived from Washington. The 
next morning they battered down the door of the 
engine house and took Brown and his men pris- 
oners. Over at Charles Town, the county-seat 
of Jefferson County, Brown and several others 
were tried, convicted, and hanged a few weeks 
later. 

Brown's raid stirred up the South. The hang- 
ing of Brown stirred up the North. The people 
of the South did not know how soon other similar 
raids might occur elsewhere, for there was evi- 
dence to show that Brown had been encouraged 
and supported by some persons of influence in 
Massachusetts and other states. The people of 
the North, many of them, were disposed to look 
upon Brown as a martyr who had given his life 
to a great cause. The Abolition Party, which had 
been working for years to free the slaves, was much 
strengthened by the sympathy that Brown's 
death aroused. 

Thus the great differences that had disturbed 
the country for years were made sharper. Only 
a few more sparks were needed to start a destruc- 
tive flame. 

This story of John Brown's raid has been pre- 
sented at this point for two reasons : First, to 



JOHN BROWN'S -RAID 263 

show how a httle spark may kindle a great fire ; 
second, to introduce two sons of Virginia who soon 
became very famous. 

Nobody knew who the leader of the Harper's 
Ferry raid was till the marines were lined up before 
the engine house. Then a young lieutenant of 
cavalry, who happened to be with them, went up 
to the door and demanded surrender. At the 
same time he recognized the leader as John Brown 
and called him by name. He had seen Brown a 
few years before in Kansas. 

That young lieutenant was J. E. B. Stuart, 
who, during the war between the states, was 
General Stuart, a daring and skillful commander 
of Virginia cavalry. A native of Patrick County, 
Virginia, he was educated at Emory and Henry 
College and at the United States Military 
Academy, West Point, New York. He had seen 
hard service in the West against the Indians, and 
soon he won renown in the Civil War. 

The officer who was In charge of the marines 
was Colonel Robert E. Lee, whom every boy 
and girl of Virginia knows as General Lee. 

Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Vir- 
ginia, the native county of Washington and Mon- 
roe. He was a son of General Henry Lee, "Light- 
Horse Harry," who is mentioned in Chapter XIX. 
As a boy, Robert Lee went to school in Alexandria. 
As a young man, he graduated from West Point. 



264 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



Soon after graduation he married Mary Custis, 
whose home was beautiful Arhngton, just across 
the Potomac from Washington. 

■ As an engineer of the United States army, Lee 
did important work at various places in the 
country, notably at St. Louis and at Hampton 




HOME OF ROBERT E. LEE AT ARIINOToN 

Roads. In the war with Mexico he won marked 
distinction under General Winfield Scott, an- 
other son of Virginia. At the time of John 
Brown's raid he happened to be at home — at 
Arlington — and was sent up to Harper's Ferry 
where he captured John Brown on Tuesday 
morning, October 18. 

Lee at this time was nearly fifty-three years 



JOHN BROWN'S RAID 265 

old and was generally regarded as one of the ablest 
officers in the United States. He and Stuart, 
with many others, soon were called upon to decide 
whether they would fight for the Union against 
Virginia or with Virginia against the Union. It 
was a hard choice to make, but from it there was 
no escape. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In 1859 John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, tried to invade 
Virginia by arming the slaves. 

2. The negroes did not respond to his call. Brown was 
soon captured and hanged. 

3. Many things had already made the people, North and 
South, angry over their differences; therefore Brown's raid 
was taken very seriously. 

4. It aroused the South because it was known that many 
Abolitionists approved his methods. 

5. The hanging of Brown aroused the North because 
many persons there regarded him as a martyr. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Oilman: Robert E. Lee; pages 1-85. 
Williamson : Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 9-42. 
Williamson: Life of J. E. B. Stuart; pages 13-33. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Dickson: American History; pages 366-373. 
Smithey : History of Virginia; pages 175-180. 
Virginia State Department of Public Instruction : The 
Causes and Outbreak of the War between the States. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
LEE'S DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 

In the autumn of i860 Abraham Lincoln was 
elected President of the United States. His 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



election was generally regarded as a triumph of 
those who opposed slavery and state rights. 
Accordingly, the defenders of slavery and state 
rights felt that they would thenceforth be allowed 



266 



LEE'S DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 267 

very little share in the government at Washing- 
ton, and many of them said, "Let us withdraw 
and establish another government of our own." 

Other people of the South put it this way : 
"The Constitution is being violated at Wash- 
ington and the rights of our states are not being 
respected. Let us secede." 

It was only a month or two till six or seven 
Southern states did secede. That is, they declared 
that they were no longer in the Union. Their 
representatives in Congress left Washington and 
went home. In February (1861) those states 
formed a union of their own, calling it "The 
Confederate States of America." They drew up a 
constitution and elected Jefferson Davis of Mis- 
sissippi President. They took charge of the forts 
and arsenals within their borders. 

Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, 
resisted and was bombarded. Then President 
Lincoln at once called on all the states that had 
not seceded to send troops to fight against those 
that had seceded — to compel them to remain in 
the federal union. 

It was only then (April, 1861) that Virginia 
seceded. She had to take sides. Either she had 
to fight against the Southern states or she had to 
fight with them. She chose to fight with them, 
much as she loved the Union and much as she 
desired peace. Soon eleven states in all had 











A MAP OF EASTERN VIRGINIA 



LEE'S DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 269 

seceded and Richmond was made the Confederate 
capital. 

Now we can readily see why Richmond had to 
be defended and why so many great battles were 
fought in Virginia. 

From the very beginning of the war one of the 
chief aims of President Lincoln and his generals 
was to take Richmond. One army after another, 
during four long years, left Washington shouting, 
*'0n to Richmond!" But as one after another 
was driven back in defeat somebody wrote a 
song: "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel." 

The first great army in blue that started for 
Richmond got only as far as Manassas, in Prince 
William County. There, on July 21, 1861, it 
was defeated in one of the first notable battles of 
the war. The second great attempt was made in 
the spring and early summer of 1862. This 
campaign was led by General McClellan ; and 
this time the boys in blue got near enough to the 
city of the seven hills to see the tops of the church 
spires and to hear the chiming of the bells. Then 
it was that Lee made his first famous defense of 
Richmond. 

When Virginia decided to join the Confederacy, 
Lee decided to serve Virginia. This meant that 
he had to resign his commission in the United 
States army, where he had won high honor and 
rich opportunity. In all probability if he had 



270 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE 



LEE'S DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 271 



remained at Washington he would have been 
made chief general. This he doubtless knew, 
but he felt that his first duty was to Virginia, his 
native state, and to Virginia he gave his sword. 
So did Stuart, and so did a number of others who 
held commissions under the United States. 

General McClellan, in the spring of 1862, came 
against Richmond from the southeast — from 
the lower part of 
Chesapeake Bay. 
Because- his army 
moved up the neck of 
land between James 
River and York 
River, his advance 
upon Richmond is 
known as the Penin- 
sular Campaign. The 
Confederate armies 
defending Richmond 
at this time were at 
first commanded by 
General Joseph E. 
Johnston, a Virginia 
soldier of great ability ; but at the end of May 
Johnston was wounded. Lee then succeeded him, 
and from that day on till the end of the war Lee 
was the great chief of Virginia's armies, whether 
in stubborn defense or in brilliant attack. 




GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 



272 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



McClellan's men fought their way slowly up the 
Peninsula and after a month or two were only four 
or five miles from Richmond on the east and north ; 
but then the tide began to turn. In some of the 
hardest fighting of the war the boys in gray 
pushed the blue waves back. From June 26 to 
July 2 — for seven days — the battles raged. 
From Mechanicsville and Gaines's Mill down to 

Malvern Hill and Har- 
rison's Landing on the 
James the storm swept 
round and past, and 
Richmond breathed 
again. The Seven Days 
had saved the Seven 
Hills. But many who 
wore the gray and many 
who wore the blue 
waked not again when 
the bugles called. 
McClellan went back, down James River, and 
the Peninsular Campaign was history. 

Two incidents of this campaign deserve special 
mention. 

In March, about the time McClellan was 
starting up the Peninsula, there was a famous 
naval battle in Hampton Roads between two 
ironclads, the Confederate Virginia and the Federal 
Monitor. Battleships plated with iron were new 




GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN 



LEE'S DEFENSE OF RICHMOND 273 

in those days, but after the Virginia and the 
Monitor appeared it was not long till the world 
began to build ironclads. 

In June, while the Federals were lying east of 
Richmond, Stuart and his cavalry rode clear 
around McClellan's army. This famous ''round- 
up" took three or four days, but Stuart had much 
to show for it. He cut off McClellan's touch 
with his reserves, destroyed large stores of sup- 
plies, and secured information that was very 
valuable to General Lee. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Virginia turned away from the Union in 1 861 only- 
after she had been called upon to fight against her sister 
states. 

2. Then Lee, Stuart, and a number of other United 
States officers resigned and came home to Virginia. 

3. Richmond, which was soon made the Confederate capi- 
tal, was advanced upon by one Federal army after another. 

4. The first campaign against Richmond was broken 
up at Manassas in July, 1861. 

5. The second great campaign against Richmond came up 
the Peninsula early in 1862. It was directed by McClellan. 

6. Lee met McClellan at the very gates of Richmond 
and turned him back. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 162-172. 
Williamson : Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 45-50. 
Williamson: Life of J. E. B. Stuart; pages 34-67. 



274 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 325-338. 

Dodge: Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War; pages 49-68. 

Gilman : Robert E. Lee; pages 86-118. 

Munford : Virginia's Attitude Toward Slavery and Seces- 
sion ; pages 237-283. 

White: The First Iron-Clad Naval Engagement; pages 
1-17. 

Suggestions. — A large map of Virginia, showing Manas- 
sas, the Peninsula, Richmond, etc., should be on the wall. 
If none is at hand outline one on the blackboard, using chalk 
of different colors. 

The booklet by E. V. White, on the "First Iron-Clad 
Naval Engagement in the World," is finely illustrated and 
is of special interest. It was published in 1906 by J. S. 
Ogilvie Company, 57 Rose Street, New York. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 



JACKSON IN THE VALLEY 

In May and the early part of June, 1862, while 
Johnston and Lee were guarding Richmond against 
McClellan, one of 
the most remarkable 
campaigns of the war 
was taking place in 
the Shenandoah Val- 
ley. It was a master- 
piece of military 
strategy, wrought 
out by that master 
of war, Stonewall 
Jackson, 

Thomas Jonathan 
Jackson was born at 
Clarksburg, Virginia 
(now West Virginia), 
in 1824. He was 
much younger than 
Lee and Johnston, 
but he was nine years 
older than Stuart. Like them all, he was a gradu- 
ate of West Point ; and, like Lee and Johnston, he 

27s 




GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON 



276 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

had won distinction in the war with Mexico. In 
1 85 1 he was made a professor in Virginia Mihtary 
Institute, at Lexington, the "West Point of the 
South." At Manassas, in July, 1861, he won his 
famous nickname, "Stonewall." 

At Manassas, that bloody day, when some 
Confederate troops were falling back in disorder 
on the hill above the Henry House, General Bee 
of South Carolina shouted, "There is Jackson's 
brigade, standing like a stone wall ! Rally behind 
the Virginians !" 

From that day forth Jackson was "Stonewall 
Jackson" and his brigade was the "Stonewall 
Brigade." 

All during the early spring of 1862 Jackson and 
his little army were in the Valley. In March they 
had a fierce battle at Kernstown, near Winchester, 
with a Federal force under General Shields. 
As time went on the Federal government became 
alarmed for fear Jackson might dodge suddenly 
out of the Valley and attack Washington City. 
To guard against this three or four Federal armies 
were sent toward the Valley to watch him. 

Now this was just what Jackson and Lee wanted. 
If Jackson could keep fifty or sixty thousand 
boys in blue playing hide and seek around the 
MaSsanutten Mountain, it was very evident that 
those boys in blue could not help McClellan to 
capture Richmond. And McClellan was sorely 



JACKSON IN THE VALLEY 277 

disappointed in not having their help, for he had 
counted on it. 

Jackson was an "artful dodger" — a "gay 
deceiver" — when it came to playing hide and 
seek with the boys in blue. Half the time they 
did not know where he was and the rest of the 
time he was where they did not want him to be. 

During April Jackson was rather quiet, moving 
his army slowly up the Valley and reorganizing 
it. Then, about May i, he started a new game. 
Four Federal armies were watching him — or 
trying to do so. One was in Highland County, 
one was in Shenandoah County, one was in 
Pendleton County, and the fourth one was east 
of the Blue Ridge, near Fredericksburg. Jackson 
was in Rockingham County, near Elkton (then 
Conrad's Store). 

One day he began moving his troops eastward, 
across the Blue Ridge. If the Federals knew of 
it at all they doubtless said, "He is going to 
Richmond to help against McClellan." Jackson's 
own men supposed that they were bound for 
Richmond. They marched over the mountain 
and on to Mechum's River. There they boarded 
the train. But when the train started it went west 
instead of east. Up by Greenwood and Afton, 
through the long tunnel, and on past Waynesboro 
to Staunton it went. Jackson surprised the people 
of Staunton as much as any others. 



278 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



From Staunton he hurried his men westward 
thirty-odd miles across the mountains to 
McDowell, and there on May 8, aided by General 
Edward Johnson, he defeated General Milroy. 

That was victory Number One. 




A few days after McDowell Jackson moved 
back into the Valley by way of Buckhorn Tavern 
and Mt. Solon. Down by Bridgewater and 
Harrisonburg he went. At New Market he 
crossed the Massanutten Mountain to Luray 



JACKSON IN THE VALLEY 279 

and thence moved swiftly down to Front Royal. 
Out of Front Royal and Strasburg he drove 
General Banks pell-mell, down the Valley past 
Winchester and across the Potomac. 

That was victory Number Two. Miss Mary John- 
ston gives a fine picture of it in "The Long Roll." 

Coming back from the Potomac, Jackson had 
to hurry more than usual, for the other two 
Federal armies had at last found out where he 
was and they were coming in, one from the east^ 
the other from the west, to cut him off at Front 
Royal and Strasburg. The army from the east 
(from Fredericksburg) got to Front Royal while 
Jackson was still in the lower part of the Valley ; 
and the one from the west almost got to Strasburg 
ahead of him ; but he brushed roughly past and 
went on up the Valley Turnpike, past Fisher's 
Hill, Woodstock, Mt. Jackson, and New Market, 
followed by both armies of the enemy. One of 
them, under General Fremont, was just behind 
him on the Pike ; the other, under General Shields, 
was coming up on the east side of the Massanutten 
Mountain and the main branch of the Shenandoah 
River. 

At Harrisonburg Jackson turned abruptly south- 
east. Fremont came too close and was sharply 
beaten back at Cross Keys on June 8. 

That was victory Number Three. 

Then Jackson rushed his troops across the river 



28o A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

at Port Republic, burned the bridge behind him 
to keep Fremont from following, met Shields as 
he came up on the other side and defeated 
him. 

That was victory Number Four. 

And the game lasted hardly forty days. It 
was over in time for Jackson actually to take his 
veterans to Richmond and join Lee there in 
driving McClellan back. 

• Jackson's men moved so rapidly in the Valley 
Campaign that they were called "foot cavalry." 
Coming back up the Valley from the Potomac, 
one regiment of the Stonewall Brigade marched- 
forty-two miles without sleep. But, as a rule, 
Jackson let his men stop a few minutes every 
hour to rest. For five or ten minutes the whole 
column was halted and the men sat down or 
stretched out full length on the ground. Jack- 
son liked to see them lie down flat. He said, 
"When a man lies down he rests all over." It was 
because he rested his men so often that they were 
able to march so far and so fast. 

Somebody about this time made up a song called 
"Stonewall Jackson's Way." Here is the first 
stanza of it : 

"Come, stack arms, men, pile on the rails, 
Stir up the campfire bright; 
No matter if the canteen fails, 
We'll make a roaring night. 



JACKSON IN THE VALLEY 281 

Here Shenandoah brawls along, 
There burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, 
To swell the brigade's rousing song 
Of Stonewall Jackson's way." 

In spite of their hard marching and their hard 
fighting Jackson's men, like others who wore the 
gray and the blue, had their songs. Among the 
favorites in the camps of gray were " Dixie," 
*' Bonnie Blue Flag," "Lorena," "Home, Sweet 
Home," "Old Folks at Home," and "The Girl I 
Left Behind Me." 

We must not end this story of the Valley Cam- 
paign without paying a tribute to General Turner 
Ashby, Jackson's cavalry leader. Just as Stuart 
led Lee's cavalry and made it "eyes and ears" 
for Lee, so gallant Ashby of Fauquier led Jackson's 
cavalry and gathered information for Jackson. 
Not only so, but Ashby and his men closed the 
gaps in the mountains, burned bridges at the rivers, 
and fought off the enemy as he followed. 

On the evening of June 6 (1862), just as the sun 
was sinking behind the Alleghanies, General Ashby 
was shot through the heart in a sharp fight near 
Harrisonburg. During the night and the next 
day his body was carried to Charlottesville and 
there buried. Later it was removed to Winchester, 
where it now rests under the massive granite block 
inscribed to "The Brothers Ashby." 

Fifty years after the fight in which General 



282 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Ashby was killed the United Daughters of the 
Confederacy in Virginia held their annual con- 
vention at Harrisonburg. One of the things 
they did was to meet one evening on the battle- 
field and weave a wreath for Ashby ; and in the 
company was one woman who, as a little girl, had 
followed his body to the cemetery at Charlottes- 
ville, fifty years before. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. While Johnston and Lee were defending Richmond 
against McClellan in the spring of 1862, Stonewall Jackson 
was playing hide and seek with four Federal armies west 
of the Blue Ridge. 

2. By moving quickly he struck them separately and 
defeated them all. 

3. The chief value was that he kept them from going to 
Richmond to aid McClellan. 

4. At the end Jackson himself went to Richmond and 
aided Lee. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages 314-324. 
Magill : First Book in Virginia History; pages 173-196. 
Williamson: Life of Thomas J. Jackson; pages 13S-173. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Latane : History of the United States; pages 368-375. 
Riggs : An American History; pages 348-369. 
Riley: Our Republic; pages 351-363. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
SECOND MANASSAS AND FREDERICKSBURG 

We have seen how Lee defended Richmond 
against McClellan in the early summer of 1862. 
By the latter part of August he was eighty miles 
north of Richmond facing another Federal army 
that was finding Richmond "a hard road to 
travel." 

This army in blue was commanded by General 
John Pope. It lay for miles along the Rappa- 
hannock River on the side toward Warrenton and 
Manassas. On the opposite side, toward Cul- 
peper, was Lee. And with him were "Old Jack," 
as Stonewall Jackson was called by his men, and 
" Jeb" Stuart and other Virginia generals. Across 
the Rappahannock the two armies watched each 
other. 

Then Jackson started his old game of hide and 
seek. At least he did the hiding. — there was 
not much seeking. Under Lee's orders Jackson 
led his men up the Rappahannock to Amissville 
in Rappahannock County. There he crossed the 
river into Fauquier County and marched down 
behind a long wooded ridge called Bull Run Moun- 

283 



284 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



tain. Slipping through the mountain at Broad 
Run he came out Thoroughfare Gap on the other 
side and moved down towards Manassas. Like a 
storm out of a clear sky he struck Pope's flank 






PLAN OF SECOND MANASSAS 
(BULL RUN) BATTLE. 1862 

SHOWING JACKSON'S MARCH 

AROUND BULL RUN MOUNTAIN 

TO STRIKE THE REAR OF POPE'S ARMY 

Scale of Mtles 




Wh«.Eog.C<K,N,T. 



and rear on the old battlefield around the Henry 
House, where he had fought the year before and 
won his name of Stonewall. 

For two days the battle raged, but Pope could 
not stand against "Old Jack" and Lee. Back 



MANASSAS AND FREDERICKSBURG 285 

toward Alexandria and Washington Pope's army 
was driven, and the second battle of Manassas was 
history. Another "On to Richmond !" had failed. 

It was now Lee's turn to do some invading, so 
he crossed the Potomac River, going north. 
But owing to an unlucky accident, by which a 
copy of his plans was found by the enemy, he 
was soon overtaken. At Sharpsburg, Maryland, 
along Antietam Creek, he fought a terrible battle 
on the 17th of September. A day or two later 
he crossed the Potomac back into Virginia ; and 
as winter came on he was found confronting 
another Federal army across the Rappahannock. 

This time he was farther down the river, at 
Fredericksburg. On the opposite side rose the 
hills of Stafford County, and there the men in blue 
were watching. Some of them, no doubt, were 
camped on the very farm where George Washing- 
ton grew up. 

Lee's army, on its side, held Marye's Heights 
and other hills adjacent. On the campus of the 
State Normal School, now located there, one may 
still see trenches and cannon pits. 

And on the 13th of December (1862) came the 
battle of Fredericksburg. Across the river, 
through the town, and up towards the hills where 
Lee's gray legions waited, the hosts of blue came 
sturdily into the fire of death, wave after wave. 
But their heroic sacrifice was all in vain. Soon 



286 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



thirteen thousand lay dead or wounded. Lee's 
men, sheltered by ridges of earth and walls of 
stone, suffered not half so much. 

Second Manassas and Fredericksburg were both 
marked victories for the Confederates. The 
former was due to the brilliant strategy of Lee 




HOUSE IN FREDERICKSBURG, WHERE WASHINGTON'S MOTHERT LIVED IN 
HER OLD AGE 



and Jackson ; the latter was due to the headlong 
blunders of the Federal commander. 

It was perhaps sometime in the summer of 
1862, while Lee was facing the Federals along the 
Rappahannock, that an incident occurred which 
gave rise to a beautiful poem. In Chapter XXXI 
the title of the poem is given and the author, John 
R. Thompson, is mentioned. "Music in Camp" 
presents a striking picture. 



MANASSAS AND FREDERICKSBURG 287 

Two armies covered hill and plain, 

Where Rappahannock's waters 
Ran deeply crimsoned with the stain 

Of battle's recent slaughters. 

The summer clouds lay pitched like tents 

In meads of heavenly azure; 
And each dread gun of the elements 

Slept in its hid embrasure. 

The breeze so softly blew it made 

No forest leaf to quiver, 
And the smoke of the random cannonade 

Rolled slowly from the river. 

Then, as sunset came on, a Federal band, on 
its side of the river, began to play and — 

Down flocked the soldiers to the banks 

Till, margined by its pebbles. 
One wooded shore was blue with "Yanks," 

And one was gray with "Rebels." 

Soon the band played "Dixie," amid the 
shouting of the hosts in gray. Next it played 
"Yankee Doodle," and the boys in blue yelled 
just as wildly. But ' when it played "Home, 
Sweet Home," both gray and blue stood silent. 

Just how much of the story is truth and how 
much is "poetry" we cannot tell, perhaps; but 
it is certainly true in this, that not even the fury 
of battle can drive from the soldier's heart his 
love of music or of home. And it is also true 



288 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

in showing that now and then, in the quiet pauses 
of war, both sides feel the Hfting of a power that 
is stronger than hate. 

Thompson's "Music in Camp" reminds the 
reader very much of a poem by Bayard Taylor, 
"A Song of the Camp." Taylor's verses cele- 
brate an incident of the Crimean War, in Europe, 
but they show in much the same way that "the 
human soul and music are eternal." 

War always stimulates poetry and song, and 
many fine pieces were produced from 1861 to 
1865 by blue and gray alike; but we have space 
here to mention only one more: "A Georgia 
Volunteer." This poem was not actually written 
till 1870, but the Georgia volunteer of whom it 
tells was one of those brave fellows who died at 
McDowell in May, 1862, when Jackson opened his 
Valley Campaign. The author of this poem was 
Mrs. Mary A. Townsend. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Shortly after the end of the Peninsular Campaign 
Lee and Jackson broke up a third advance upon Richmond 
in the second battle of Manassas. 

2. Then came Lee's first invasion of the North, ending 
in the battle of Antietam. 

3. Toward the end of 1862 Lee checked a fourth advance 
upon Richmond in the bloody battle of Fredericksburg. 

4. The year 1862 was marked by great battles: The 
Seven Days around Richmond, in June-July; Second Manas- 



MANASSAS AND FREDERICKSBURG 289 

sas, in August; Antietam, In September; and Fredericks- 
burg, in December. 

5. Many fine poems were written during the war by John 
R. Thompson and others. 

« 
PUPIL'S READINGS 

Gilman : Robert E. Lee; pages 86-148. 
WilHamson : Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 50-61. 
WiUiamson : Life of Thomas J. Jackson; pages 183-198. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 
Bassett: Plain Story of American History; pages 356- 

364- 

Dodge: Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War; pages 69- 

81; 102-115. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG 

For nearly five months after that bloody winter 
day at Fredericksburg no great battle was fought 

in Virginia. Blue 
and gray contin- 
ued to watch each 
other across the 
Rappahannock. 
On the north side 
were the blue le- 
gions — the Army 
of the Potomac ; 
on the south side 
were Lee's veter- 
ans — the Army 
of Northern Vir- 
ginia. But as 
April (1863) ended 
and May began 
the hills of Staf- 
ford and the 
woods of Spottsylvania became alive again with 
marching hosts. The waters of the Rappahannock 

290 




JEFFERSON DAVIS 



CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG 291 

were stirred again with the crossing and recrossing 
of a hundred thousand men. 

General Burnside, who had bhindered so terribly 
at Fredericksburg, had been replaced in command 
by General Joseph Hooker — " Fighting Joe." 
And Hooker had put his men in motion for another 
"On to Richmond!" 

He tried to profit by Burnside's error. He did 
not attempt to force his way across the Rap- 
pahannock right in Lee's face at Fredericksburg. 
He moved secretly, and he succeeded in stealing 
a little march by sending his men up the river 
ten or twelve miles and putting them over there. 
There they hid in the Spottsylvania wilderness, 
between the river and Chancellorsville, while Lee 
was still at Fredericksburg. 

But Lee soon located Hooker and faced about 
westward, fighting his way out toward Chan- 
cellorsville. There, on May 2, he took his turn 
at stealing marches. Jackson — "Old Jack" — 
was sent on a roundabout way far to the left. 
After he had marched six or eight miles in a 
westerly course he turned north and came in on 
the right flank of Hooker's army, which was 
stretched out through the woods along a narrow 
road. 

It was Jackson's old game — moving silently, 
quickly, and striking the enemy where least 
expected. And right well he played it that day 



292 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



in the woods west of Chancellorsville — and for 
the last time. 

Under the heavy shock of Jackson's flank 
attack, which came an hour or two before sunset, 
Hooker's right wing was crumpled up and a large 
part of his army thrown into confusion. Hud- 
dling in 'broken lines around the Chancellor 
House as night came on, the Army of the Poto- 
mac was on the verge of utter rout. 






CONFEDERATE FLAGS — 



STARS AND BARS. THE ONE IN THE CENTER WAS 
THE BATTLE FLAG 



Then Jackson fell. In the ardor of battle he 
and a few of his aides had ridden ahead of his 
own lines. As they returned they were mistaken 
for a group of the enemy. Under a hail of bullets 
from the gray lines horses and riders were struck. 
Though Jackson was hit by three bullets and badly 
wounded, he did not at once fall from his horse. 
He was lifted down by one of his aides and shortly 
afterwards was carried off the field. 

By the roadside in the wilderness, a mile west 
of the old Chancellor House, one may see to-day 



CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG 293 

a small monument. It marks the place where 
Jackson was shot. And fifteen miles southeast, 
at Guinea Station, one may see the house in which 
he died a week later. In his death Lee lost his 
*' right arm" ; Virginia lost a strong defender. 

The wounding of Jackson checked somewhat 
the advance of his men, but Stuart was soon put 
in command of Jackson's corps, and the next few 
days. May 3-5, saw the completion of Lee's most 
brilliant victory. Hooker was driven back across 
the Rappahannock, and the fifth great "On to 
Richmond !" was turned aside. 

And then within the next two months came 
Lee's second invasion of the North. This time 
he went through the narrow part of Maryland 
and into Pennsylvania. Not only Washington 
became alarmed, but also Harrisburg and Phila- 
delphia. But on the first day of July Lee had to 
stop and fight a battle at Gettysburg, In Adams 
County, Pennsylvania. For three days that battle 
raged. Lee lost more than 20,000 men. The 
enemy lost more than he did, but the boys in 
gray who fell there could not be replaced. 

From Gettysburg Lee turned sadly back; and 
from that hour the tide of war set hard against 
him. 

Lee had not intended to fight at Gettysburg; 
but even so he would have won a great victory 
If his orders had been carried out. He missed 



294 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

the iron will and the tireless energy of Stonewall 
Jackson. 

After Gettysburg Lee withdrew his bleeding 
army from Pennsylvania, marched south through 
Maryland, and came back into Virginia, crossing 
the Potomac at almost the same place where he 
had crossed the preceding autumn, after Antietam. 
Once more back in Virginia, he tendered his 
resignation, but President Davis would not accept 
it. 

The Federal army slowly followed Lee from 
Gettysburg across the Potomac, but the remainder 
of the year passed without any important battles 
in Virginia. The spring of 1864 found Lee again 
in the wilderness of Spottsylvan'ia County, crouch- 
ing like a lion in the path of the invaders. He 
was ready, even against tremendous odds, to 
make another splendid fight in defense of Rich- 
mond. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. In defeating Hooker at Chancellorsville, May 2-5, 
1863, Lee won his most brilliant victory. 

2. Thus he turned aside the fifth great "On to Rich- 
mond !" > 

3. But he lost his "right arm" in the death of Stonewall 
Jackson. 

4. Then came Lee's second invasion of the North, ending 
in the battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3. 

5. After Gettysburg Lee's army was always largely out- 
numbered by the enemy. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE AND GETTYSBURG 295 



PUPIL'S READINGS 

Gilman : Robert E. Lee; pages 149-172. 
Williamson : Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 62-70. 
Williamson: Life of J. E. B. Stuart; pages 124-166. 
Williamson: Life of Thos. J. Jackson; pages 203-238. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Bassett : Plain Story of American History; pages 364- 
368. 

Dodge: Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War; pages 127- 
141. 

McKim : The Soul of Lee ; pages 215-258. 

Suggestion. — In Dodge's book will be found outline 
maps of all the great battlefields mentioned above. If the 
teacher will sketch the plans of Second Manassas and Chan- 
cellorsville side by side, indicating Jackson's flank movement 
on each plan in red chalk, the likeness of the two movements 
will at once be seen. 

Note. — From the maps one is apt to get the notion that 
Gettysburg battlefield is bounded by rugged hills and ridges, 
that a deep depression lies between Seminary Ridge and 
Cemetery Ridge, etc., and that Antietam battlefield is a 
smooth, level meadow, bordering a small pasture stream. 
The reverse is more nearly true. The most celebrated ex- 
panse at Gettysburg is almost a level plain, while the whole 
Antietam field is made up of abrupt hills and high plateaus, 
cut through by the ravine of a considerable river. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
WINCHESTER AND CEDAR CREEK 

All through the year 1864 and into '65 General 
Lee continued to stand on guard before Richmond, 
as we shall see in Chapter XLI. His army was 
the main army and his movements were the chief 
movements ; but in this chapter we shall turn 
again for a moment to the Shenandoah Valley 
to see what was going on there. 

The Valley, as we have seen already, was a 
place that was sought for and fought for by both 
sides — blue and gray. It was rich in grain 
fields, in cattle, in barns, and in flour mills. And 
the long roads, hidden behind the Blue Ridge 
and the Massanutten, were just the thing for 
armies moving quickly in either direction. 

And the year 1864 is a memorable one in Valley 
history. In May came the battle of New Market. 
In September was fought the battle of Win- 
chester. Early October was marked by the 
"burning"; and late October witnessed the 
thrilling though tragic drama of Cedar Creek. 

New Market is a beautiful village on the Valley 
Turnpike, eighteen miles below Harrisonburg. 

296 



WINCHESTER AND CEDAR CREEK 297 

It was at New Market that Stonewall Jackson 
turned eastward in May, 1862, to pass through 
the Massanutten Mountain in his game of hide 
and seek with the four Federal armies. And it 
was at New Market in May, 1864, that a sharp 
battle was fought between 6000 Federals under 
General Franz Sigel and a smaller force of Con- 
federates under General John C. Breckinridge. 
The Federals, coming up the Valley, were met 
at New Market by the Confederates going down ; 
and, at the end of a rainy, bloody day, were 
beaten and driven back down the Valley Turn- 
pike. 

The battle of New Market has been widely 
celebrated because of the brilliant part taken in 
it by the cadets of the Virginia Military Institute. 
Those boys had marched down the eighty miles 
from Lexington, eager to strike a blow for the 
Confederacy. The only thing they feared was 
that the battle might go on and they be left out. 
But in the afternoon Breckinridge needed every 
man and called them in. They responded with 
such spirit and charged so gallantly and effectively 
across the muddy fields, in the face of a deadly 
fire, that their story has gone round the world. 

Fifty years after the battle of New Market, 
and again in the fair month of May, the V. M. I. 
cadets marched down the Valley Pike to New 
Market. They went to celebrate in peace the 



298 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

valor of their fathers and grandfathers. And 
yet, by a terrible fate, before the year ended the 
World War had broken out in Europe, and the 
call of martial duty came to the boys of 1914 
just as it had come to the boys of 1864. Stonewall 
Jackson's spirit came back and "Stonewall Jack- 
son's Way" led again from the parade ground to 
the battlefield. 

When we speak of the battle of Winchester 
one may properly ask, "Which battle of Win- 
chester ?" 

So much fighting took place around Winchester 
and the town changed hands so often from first 
to last that, it is said, the people of Winchester 
never knew, when they got up in the morning, 
which side was in control. They always had to 
look out and see which flag was flying before they 
could be certain. Berryville, in the adjoining 
county of Clarke, used to be called Battletown. 
Winchester, it would seem, might fairly have been 
a rival for that title. 

But in this connection when we speak of the 
battle of Winchester we mean the large-scale 
engagement that took place just east of the town 
September 19, 1864, between Early and Sheridan. 
The battlefield lies between Red Bud Run on the 
north, Abraham's Creek on the south, and Ope- 
quon Creek on the east. The conflict is often 
termed the battle of Opequon. 



WINCHESTER AND CEDAR CREEK 299 

Early's gray legions stood before Winchester 
and fought stubbornly, but Sheridan came across 
the Opequon with forty thousand men, infantry 
and cavalry. By nightfall Early was driven 




OLD QUAKER CHURCH. THIS IS STILL STANDING NEAR WINCHESTER 

back through Winchester and up the Valley 
towards Strasburg. 

On September 22, Early made another stand at 
Fisher's Hill, but superior numbers again dis- 
lodged him and he was chased by Sheridan to the 
upper parts of the Valley. 



300 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



Then began the " burning." As Sheridan turned 
back, from the region of Staunton and Waynesboro, 
he began setting fire to barns, mills, and stacks 




THIS OLD MILL ESCAPED THE "BURNING." THE HUGE WATER WHEEL IS 
SHOWN AT THE RIGHT 

of hay and grain. Moving down the Valley past 
Harrisonburg, New Market, Mt. Jackson, Wood- 
stock, and Strasburg, he spread his troops across 
the Valley and swept all supplies before him. 



WINCHESTER AND CEDAR CREEK 301 

For three or four days, that early October, the 
fires burst out and the smoke columns rolled up 
on a steadily moving front from mountain to 
mountain. Two thousand barns and seventy 
mills filled with grain and flour were burned. 
Twenty thousand tons of hay were destroyed. 
Four thousand horses, ten thousand cattle, and 
thirty thousand hogs and sheep^ were driven away. 
The VaUey was left so much a waste that many 
of the people had to move away, as winter came 
on, to keep from starving. 

It was done to cut off supplies from Lee's army. 
But it was hardly necessary. Lee was already 
outnumbered two to one and his men and horses 
had scanty fare. 

Old inhabitants of the Valley who lived through 
that terrible destruction of October, 1864, were 
accustomed in after years to refer to it as we have 
done, in that one simple but graphic word, the 
"burning." 

By the middle of October Sheridan's army was 
reposing between Strasburg and Middletown, 
behind the banks of Cedar Creek. Sheridan 
himself had gone to Washington. It was then 
that Early "came back" and burst upon the stage 
without announcement and without a prelude. 

Before daylight on the morning of October 
19 — a day memorable from Revolutionary times 
— Early sent General Gordon of Georgia far 



302 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

around to the right. Silently through the dark- 
ness, around the rugged shoulder of Massanutten 
Mountain and across the Shenandoah River, 
Gordon led his men. It was Jackson's old trick, 
and right well Gordon played it. 

The Federal camps in the early morning were 
rudely wakened, and soon the blue hosts were rush- 
ing in confusion down the historic turnpike past 
Middletown and Stephens City, toward Kerns- 
town and Winchester. 

Sheridan had returned from Washington — 
had spent the night in Winchester. He was 
wakened by the sound of battle, eighteen or 
twenty miles away. Then it was that he made 
his celebrated ride up the pike, pressing against 
the rush of his scattered army, until he was able 
to rally the main bodies and face them about. 
He did not gallop twenty miles, as the poets 
seem to say, but he did ride fast for twelve or 
fifteen miles, till he almost met Early's men. 
Then he got his own men to make a stand, and 
soon the tide of battle turned ; for, as at Opequon, 
he outnumbered Early two to one. 

The battle of Cedar Creek ended the presence 
of large armies in the Valley. Soon Early's men 
joined Lee, and Sheridan joined Grant in the main 
operations around Richmond. 



WINCHESTER AND CEDAR CREEK 303 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Winchester (Opequon) and Cedar Creek were the 
chief battles of 1864 in the Valley- 

2. The former was on September 19; the latter was on 
October 19. 

3. The battle of New Market, in which the V. M. I. 
cadets distinguished themselves, occurred in May preceding. 

4. The famous barn-burning by Sheridan took place early 
in October. 

5. Sheridan's celebrated ride from Winchester was an 
incident of the battle of Cedar Creek. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Gordy : Elementary History of the United States ; pages 
267-271. 

Smithey : History of Virginia ; pages 224-226. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Dodge: Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War; pages 269- 
278. 

Johnston: Cease Firing; pages 3 8 2-404. 

Turner: The New Market Campaign; pages 66-89. \ 



CHAPTER XL 
SALTVILLE AND WYTHEVILLE 

In the preceding chapter we learned how 
Sheridan burned barns and mills in the Shenandoah 
Valley in order to cut off flour and grain from 
Lee's army. During every war one of the big 
problems is to get food and other supplies for the 
armies — and also for the people at home. Some 
one has said that the North won the Civil War 
because it had McCormick's reaper. The reaper 
made big harvests, hence the armies and the cities 
of the North had plenty to eat. 

One of the hardest things to get during a war, 
if it lasts long, is salt, because salt is produced 
at only a few places. And salt is something that 
people must have. The same is true of lead. 
Lead is found in only a few places, and lead is 
something that soldiers must have. At least, 
it is certainly true that in our past wars soldiers 
used much lead. In New York City, for example, 
when the Revolution broke out, a leaden statue 
of the king was melted and molded into bullets. 
Most of, the millions and millions of bullets that 

304 



SALTVILLE AND WYTHEVILLE 305 

were fired from rifles and muskets in that war, 
in the War of 181 2, and in the Civil War were 
lead bullets. 

As to salt, it rose to ^10 a sack in Virginia before 
the end of 1861. Soon it was ^18; and before 
the end of the war it could hardly be obtained 
at all. The government took charge of salt in 
many of the Southern states, but toward the end 
there was hardly any to be had. So desperate 
did the need for salt become in some places that 
people dug up the dirt floors of old smokehouses 
in the effort to extract salt from them. 

This chapter is introduced here to chronicle 
some interesting facts about salt and lead in the 
history of Virginia. 

It appears that in the long ago, before white 
men came to this country, the wild animals would 
find here and there a place where, by licking the 
ground or sipping the marshes, they could taste 
salt. Roanoke City stands at one of those places. 
Years ago it was called Big Lick. In 1750 the 
place was visited by Dr. Thomas Walker, who 
wrote of it in his diary as follows : 

" March 15th. We went to the Great Lick on 
a Branch of the Staunton & bought corn of Michael 
Campbell for our Horses. This Lick has been 
one of the best places for Game in these parts 
and would have been of much greater advantage 
to the Inhabitants than it has been if the Hunters 



3o6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

had not killed the Buffaloes for diversion, and the 
Elks and Deer for their skins." 

Some time prior to 1840 the skeleton of a 
mammoth was found near Big Lick. In all 
probability it, too, was seeking salt, in its own 
remote age. 

In April, 1750, Dr. Walker found another 
notable lick west of Cumberland Gap, in what is 
now Kentucky. He says : 

1^* **In the Fork of Licking Creek is a Lick much 
used by the Buffaloes and many large Roads lead 
to It. 

Those persons who have read the story of 
Daniel Boone's life may recall that when he and 
about twenty-five other men were captured by 
the Indians they were on an expedition to the salt 
licks, fifty or sixty miles north of Boonesboro, 
Kentucky. 

As early as 1809 salt wells were opened in Ka- 
nawha County, Virginia ; and in a few years salt 
was made there in large quantities. Soon after 
the beginning of the Civil War, however, Virginia 
lost control of the Kanawha salt works. And in 
1863 Kanawha County was included in the new 
state of West Virginia. 

The chief dependence of Virginia, therefore, 
and of other Southern states for a supply of salt 
during the Civil War was upon Saltville. 

Saltville is located in southwest Virginia, on 



SALTVILLE AND WYTHEVILLE 307 

the north fork of Holston River, almost exactly 
on the line between Smyth County and Washington 
County. At present it is an industrial town of 
2300 population, built in a circular form around 
what was at one time a lake. The old lake bed, 
in area 200 acres, is now a level expanse of grass 
land, punctured with numerous brine wells. 

The site was first known to the white people as 
Buffalo Lick, and it is still termed "The Lick" 
by some of the older citizens. 

The first salt manufactured here was made by 
William King sometime prior to the year 1800. 
Salt was obtained by digging deep wells, pumping 
into them fresh water, and letting the water 
stand in the wells till it was salt brine. The 
brine was then pumped out, condensed, and 
refined. 

About 1845 a visitor to southwest Virginia 
wrote as follows : 

"The settlement called Saltville derives its 
name from the justly celebrated salt-works of 
Preston and King, which are on the line of Smyth 
and Washington counties, in a narrow plain be- 
tween the Rich Valley and the north fork of the 
Holston. There are two wells here, and the salt 
manufactured from them is of an excellent quality. 
About 100 persons are employed at these works. 
The only fossil salt yet discovered in the Union 
is found at this place." 



3o8 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

During the war between the states, after the 
Federal blockade became effective, the entire 
South looked to Saltville for its supply of salt. 
Virginia controlled the output, but other states 
were allowed to operate furnaces of their own. 
The salt was hauled on wagons to the nearer 
states, while the supply for the more distant ones 
was floated down the rivers at high tide and dis- 
tributed from Memphis and other cities of the 
Mississippi Valley. 

Two considerable battles were fought for the 
possession of Saltville — the first on October 2, 
1864, the other on December 22 of the same year. 
On the latter date the Federals captured the 
place. They burned the depot and other build- 
ings and destroyed the furnaces and the wells. 
Many of the hills about the town still show the 
old breastworks distinctly. 

The capture of Saltville cut off the salt supply 
for the Confederacy and increased the hardships 
under which the people of the South had to live 
during the last months of the war. After the 
war the work at Saltville was revived, but since 
1904 no salt has been made there. Since then the 
brine and the limestone taken from the surround- 
ing hills are used in manufacturing baking soda, 
soda ash, and other related products. When 
the works are running at full capacity more than 
a million pounds of limestone are used each day. 



SALTVILLE AND WYTHEVILLE 309 



During the recent war with Germany the United 
States government built a ^2,000,000 " plant" at 
Saltville, but it has not been much used. 

About twelve miles southeast of Wytheville, in 
Wythe County, are some famous lead mines. The 
bullets fired by General 
Andrew Lewis's men at 
Point Pleasant in 1774 
and those used at King's 
Mountain by Colonel 
Campbell's men in 1780 
were made of lead from 
the Wythe County 
mines. These mines 
were described by Dr. 
Jed Morse of Connecti- 
cut in the first edition 
of his geography, which 
appeared in 1789. 

The Wythe lead mines 
were used not only dur- 
ing the wars with the 
Indians and during the 
Revolution, but also in 
the War of 18 12 and in the Civil War. An old 
stone shot tower, operated in days long past, still 
stands near the mines, on the right bank of New 
River. On a good map of Virginia the mines may 
be located under the name Austinville. Moses 




OLD WYTHE SHOT TOWER. STILL 
STANDING AT THE LEAD MINES 
NEAR WYTHEVILLE 



310 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Austin was an early owner ; and Stephen F. 
Austin, famous in the pioneer history of Texas, 
was born there. 

It is an interesting fact that three great pioneers 
of Texas, Stephen F. Austin, Samuel Houston, 
and "Big-Foot" Wallace, were all natives of 
Virginia, 

The first man who worked the lead mines at 
Austinville was an Englishman, Colonel Chiswell. 
In Indian times he built a fort some three or four 
miles northwest of the mines. It stood on the 
great road about nine miles from Wytheville. 
Fort Chiswell was a noted center in its day. 
During the French and Indian War it was occu- 
pied by British troops. For a while it was the 
county-seat of Fincastle County, then of Mont- 
gomery, 

In connection with an account of the battle of 
Point Pleasant the historian Virgil Lewis says : 

"The lead used came from the mines at Fort 
Chiswell, on the Upper New River, then the seat 
of justice of Fincastle county ; and the powder 
was largely manufactured near the Natural Bridge, 
now in Rockbridge county. The cattle [for beef] 
were from the southern counties west of the Blue 
Ridge, and the flour was ground on water-mills 
in the Shenandoah Valley." 

Judge Robert L. Gardner says : 

"Tradition tells us that this lead mine tract 



SALTVILLE AND WYTHEVILLE 311 

of over 5000 acres was once traded for an old 
shot-gun and a dog. At another time the entire 
tract was sold for delinquent taxes, and a man 
named Jackson walked all the way to Richmond 
to bid it in. A Mr. John Jackson sold a half 
interest in the property for ^400 — and believed 
that he was making a good sale. Within the 
recent past the property was sold to a big zinc 
company for the round sum of $450,000." 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Two things that are hard to get during a long war are 
salt and lead. 

2. From very early times the people of Virginia used lead 
that was mined in Wythe County, at Austinville. 

3. Two places where salt was obtained were Kanawha 
County and Smyth County. 

4. For two or three years most of the salt used in the 
Confederate States came from Saltville, in Smyth County. 

READINGS 

No convenient references for this chapter can be given, 
since the facts presented have been collected from many 
different sources — Howe's Virginia Antiquities, Summers's 
History of Southwest Virginia, Lewis's Battle of Point Pleas- 
ant, etc. Special information has been contributed by 
various individuals — Judge Robert L. Gardner, Dr. John 
P. McConnell, Prof. W. E. Gilbert, Mrs. J. S. Nye, and 
others. 



CHAPTER XLI 



THE FINAL FIGHT FOR RICHMOND 

At the end of Chapter XXXVIII we left 
General Lee on the south side of the Rapidan and 
the Rappahannock, still guarding the road to 

Richmond. We shall 
now return to him 
and see the end of 
his long and superb 
defense. 

Early in May, 1864, 
a few days before 
the battle of New 
Market, the wilder- 
ness of Spottsylvania 
was stirred again 
with the marching of 
great armies. And 
suddenly it began to 
echo again, through 
all its green distances, with the thunders of battle. 
Grant, the new Federal commander, had crossed 
the Rapidan and was pushing south. Lee was 
striking him from the leafy coverts. In two days 

312 




GENERAL U. S. GRANT 



THE FINAL FIGHT FOR RICHMOND 313 

Grant lost 18,000 men, but he had plenty more to 
take their places, and he pushed on. But wher- 
ever he turned he found Lee in his path. At 
Spottsylvania Court House he hammered for 
nearly two weeks upon the gray lines and captured 
several thousand men, but still the gray lines 
held. Then he moved off toward the left, and Lee 
had to fall back and take another position to keep 
between Grant and Richmond. 

At Spottsylvania Court House Lee's army was 
in the shape of a huge capital A, and the apex be- 
came known as the "Bloody Angle." Back and 
forth over it the storm of battle swept. So 
intense was the hail of lead from day to day that 
at one place a tree eighteen inches in diameter 
was cut off by musket balls. 

It was at the Bloody Angle one morning, after 
Lee's front lines had been surprised and driven 
back, that ''Marse Robert" himself appeared on 
his horse, his beard grizzly above his gray coat, 
his old black hat in his hand, to lead his men in 
a countercharge. The veterans of Chancellors- 
ville and Gettysburg were ready to go themselves, 
but they did not want General Lee in danger. 
"General Lee to the rear!" they shouted; and 
as soon as he allowed his horse to be led aside 
they leaped forward, led by Gordon, and thrust 
the enemy back. 

This story of "Lee to the Rear" has been finely 



314 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

told in stirring verse by our- poet friend, John R. 
Thompson. Here are a few of his stanzas : 

"Not far off in the saddle there sat 
A gray-bearded man, with a black slouch hat; 
Not much moved by the fire was he, 
Calm and resolute, Robert Lee. 

"The grand old gray-beard rode to the space, 
Where Death and his victims stood face to face, 
And silently waved his old slouch hat — 
A world of meaning there was in that ! 



"Seasons have passed since that day and year. 
Again o'er the pebbles the brook runs clear, 
And the field in a richer green is drest 
Where the dead of the terrible conflict rest. 

"But the fame of the Wilderness fight abides, 
And down into history grandly rides, 
Calm and unmoved as in battle he sat, 
The gray-bearded man in the old slouch hat." 

All through May and June Grant edged off 
toward the southeast, trying to get around Lee 
and nearer to Richmond ; and all the time Lee 
kept moving around into his path and thrusting 
him off from the city. Smoke, blood, and death 
marked the long curve past Bothwell, Hanover, 
and Cold Harbor, where the steel edges of the 
armies clashed and struck fire. 



THE FINAL FIGHT FOR RICHMOND 315 



And among the thousands of nameless heroes 
who fell were some whom Fame had crowned 
with stars. One such was "Jeb" Stuart. While 
the hard fighting at 
Spottsylvania Court 
House was going on 
Grant sent Sheridan 
with 1 0,000 horsemen 
to cut around behind 
Lee's army and ride 
into Richmond. It 
was a bold plan and 
might have suc- 
ceeded had it not 
been for Stuart and 
his troopers. They, 
by hard riding, over- 
took Sheridan. At 
Yellow Tavern, eight 
miles north of the 
city, they struck him. 
The little band of 
defenders in the city 
heard the sound of 

battle and took courage. Soon Sheridan edged 
away. 

But at Yellow Tavern Stuart fell. In the 
evening of May 11 he was shot and the next even- 
ing he died. He was only thirty-one — in years 




MONUMENT IN RICHMOND TO GENERAL 
STUART 



3i6 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

hardly more than a youth, but in deeds many times 
a man. 

By July Grant's great army had circled around 
below Richmond, had crossed the James, and, like 
a huge crouching lion, was facing west. One 
paw was ready to crush Richmond, the other was 
pushing hard against Petersburg. 

Lee then had to defend both cities. For 
thirty-five miles he stretched his thin lines around 
them. And in this position both armies dug in. 
They did not make trenches and dugouts as deep 
as those used in the recent World War, but they 
made them deep enough to show very plainly 
after all these years. Some of the trenches were 
covered over and some were made zigzag. As 
one goes out south and east of Petersburg to-day 
he can easily trace the ridges and the ditches 
from which blue and gray watched each other 
from the summer of '64 till the spring of '65. 
' At one place, now grown up in trees, is a great 
hole, much larger and deeper than the surrounding 
depressions. It is the Crater. There, on July 
30, 1864, the Federals exploded 8000 pounds of 
powder under a Confederate fort, blowing up the 
works, killing about 300 men, and leaving a 
yawning chasm in the ground big enough to bury 
a good-sized house. 

The Federals had worked a long time to dig 
the tunnel and to plant the powder under the 



THE FINAL FIGHT FOR RICHMOND 317 

Confederate line, and they had hoped by the 
explosion to open a big gap and rush through. 
But they were too slow in coming. By the time 
they came the Confederates had come up behind 
the gap and the Crater became a huge death pit 
for many of the Federals. 

All through the long autumn, the dreary winter,, 
and the unhappy spring Lee and his dwindling 
legions guarded the long lines around Richmond 
and Petersburg. His men in the trenches had 
but scanty clothing and little to eat, while the 
horses of his cavalry and artillery were actually 
starving. From many of the trees to which the 
poor beasts were tied the bark was gnawed off. 

With plenty of men and plenty of supplies on 
one side and with a lack of men and a lack of 
supplies on the other, there could be but one re- 
sult. As the last days of March dragged out, Lee 
broke away from Grant's clutch at Petersburg and 
hurried westward. His plan was to unite with 
General Joe Johnston's army, which was coming 
up from North Carolina. 

For ten days Lee struggled on, fighting his way. 
Then he was forced to surrender. Outnumbered, 
surrounded, cut off from food and other supplies, 
there was no other course to pursue. On April 
9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, he met 
General Grant, signed the terms offered, and bade 
his gallant men farewell. 



3i8 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



In the meantime the Federals had taken pos- 
session of Richmond and Petersburg. President 
Davis and his cabinet had hurried away, in the 
vain hope of reviving the Confederate government 




THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE. CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND. PRESIDENT DAVIS 
OCCUPIED THIS HOUSE DURING THE CIVIL WAR. IT IS NOW A CONFED- 
ERATE MUSEUM 

elsewhere. But in a few days General Johnston 
also surrendered, and the war was at an end. 

Many years later Major John W. Daniel, a 
Confederate veteran, and for twenty-three years 
United States senator from Virginia, described 
the end at Appomattox in the following splendid 
words : 



THE FINAL FIGHT FOR RICHMOND 319 

"The guns of the last charge died away in the 
morning air; and echo, hke the sob of a mighty 
sea, rolled up the valley of the James, and all 
was still. The last fight of the Army of Northern 
Virginia had been fought. The end had come. 
The smoke vanished. The startled birds renewed 
their songs over the stricken field ; the battle 
smell was drowned in the fragrance of the flowering 
spring. And the ragged soldier of the South, 
God bless him ! stood there facing the dread 
reality, more terrible than death — stood there 
to grapple with and face down despair, for he had 
done his all, and all was lost, save honor!'' 

Senator Daniel was one of America's greatest 
orators, and his address on General Lee, from 
which the foregoing words are quoted, is an 
English classic. It should be read in all the high 
schools of Virginia. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Lee made his final fight for Richmond from the spring 
of '64 till the spring of '65. 

2. Finally his army was reduced to less than 30,000, his 
supplies were cut off, and he was practically surrounded by 
the large Federal army under Grant. 

3. He surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House 
on April 9, 1865. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Gilman : Robert E. Lee; pages 173-188. 
Williamson: Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 70-93. 
Williamson: Life of J. E. B. Sruart; pages 176-190. 



320 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHERS READINGS 

Daniel : Address on Lee, delivered at Washington and 
Lee University, June 28, 1883 ; pages 42-48. 

Dodge: Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War; pages 197- 
208; 212-222; 244-251; 310-319. 

Hatcher: Along the Trail of the Friendly Years; pages 
90-119. 

McKim : The Soul of Lee; pages 96-114. 

In connection with this chapter, as well as with many 
others preceding and following, the teacher will find much 
valuable illustrative material in a series of Virginia post 
cards, published by the J. P. Bell Company, Lynchburg. 



PART VI — PROGRESS AND 
PROMISE 

CHAPTER XLII 
LEE AT LEXINGTON 

At Appomattox both Lee and Grant thought 
of the future. They knew of the broken homes, 
the cities in ashes, the unplowed fields. They 
knew that the terrible waste of war needed to be 
replaced with the beauty and wealth of peace. 
Accordingly, General Grant allowed each man in 
gray who owned a horse or a mule to take him 
home. It was time for the spring plowing and 
planting. 

But there was something that the men and 
women of Virginia and of the South needed more 
than they needed horses and plows. It was 
courage. In the war their courage had been 
splendid ; but now they needed courage in defeat. 
This General Lee gave them. As he rode away 
from Appomattox on his gray horse Traveler he 
rode out into the stricken land of his people, but 
he rode the very example of courage and hope 
that they needed. 

Y 321 



322 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



So far as General Lee himself was concerned, 
he rode out of defeat into opportunity. Many 
positions, paying large salaries, were open to him. 
He could have left the broken South forever and 
have lived as a prince in foreign lands ; for the 
fame of his deeds had gone round the world. But 

he chose to be a 
teacher, and to live 
among his own peo- 
ple. In this he saw 
their greatest need 
and his own greatest 
opportunity. 

In October, 1865, 
he rode quietly into 
the town of Lexing- 
ton, in Rockbridge 
County, and there, 
at a small salary, en- 
tered upon his duties 
as president of Wash- 
ington College. The " Father of His Country," 
born in Lee's native county of Westmoreland, had 
endowed this school at Lexington and it was ac- 
cordingly named Washington College. To-day it 
is called Washington and Lee University. Wash- 
ington endowed it with money and a name. Lee 
also endowed it — with his name and with his 
manhood. 




GENERAL LEE S RESIDENCE, RICHMOND. 
NOW THE HOME OF THE VIRGINIA HIS- 
TORICAL SOCIETY 



LEE AT LEXINGTON 323 

Side by side with Virginia Military Institute, 
where Stonewall Jackson was a professor and 
whence the cadet battalion marched out in May 
of '64, Washington and Lee stands to-day upon its 
beautiful hill ; and there, for the five years of his 
life that still were spared to him after Appomattox, 
General Lee lived and worked, still leading the 
young men of Virginia and her sister states. 

And some of the boys that saluted him on the 
campus and listened to him as he stood before 
them in the college chapel were his veterans of 
the war. Some of them had left an arm or a leg 
on the field of battle, but they still had heart and 
hope. For Lee was there. They came again to 
follow him, for home and native land. 

And what were some of the things he taught 
them ? Here are some of his words : 

"Silence and patience on the part of the South 
was the true course." 

"All good citizens must unite in honest efforts 
to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the 
blessings of peace. They must not abandon their 
country, but go to work and build up its pros- 
perity." 

"The young men especially must stay at home, 
bearing themselves in such a manner as to gain the 
esteem of every one, at the same time that they 
maintain their own respect." 

"It should be the object of all to avoid con- 



324 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

troversy, to allay passion, and to give scope to 
every kindly feeling." 

Such counsel as this was needed by the people 
of Virginia in the bitter days of Reconstruction, 
following the war ; and it was perhaps because 
Virginia had such a wise counselor that she escaped 
many of the evils that developed elsewhere. As 
in battle the soldiers' watchword had been, 
"Marse Robert says so," so in peace — in troubled 
peace — the people at large seemed listening for 
his voice. 

But better even than the words of Lee was the 
fine object-lesson of his life. He himself did what 
he advised his fellow-citizens to do. He stood 
by Virginia in the time of her weakness just as 
bravely as he had cast in his fortune with her 
in the day of her strength ; and under his leader- 
ship and the influence of other men like him a 
new day of strength soon returned. So, 

"Down into history grandly rides, 
Calm and unmoved as in battle he sat, 
The gray-bearded man in the old slouch hat." 

General Lee was well fitted to be the master of 
a great school. He had been a good student in 
boyhood, and at West Point he had graduated 
second in his class, without a single demerit. 
Later he had been superintendent at West Point 
for three years. At Lexington he soon proved his 



LEE AT LEXINGTON 325 

ability in many ways. He repaired the buildings, 
improved the grounds, planted trees, added new 
courses of study, and secured additional teachers. 
With the students he was kind but firm. In his 




RECUMBENT STATUE OF GENERAL LEE, AT LEXINGTON 

religious duties he was pious and steadfast. 
In his home he was genial and courteous. 

On October 12, 1870, he died. In a chapel on 
the college grounds, under a beautiful white 
marble figure, his body rests. At mxany places 
in Virginia and other states he is honored in 
marble, in bronze, and on painted canvas ; but his 
real monument is everywhere, in the life of our 
people. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

I. In October, 1865, General Lee went to Lexington, 
Virginia, as president of Washington College. 



326 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

2. The school is now Washington and Lee University. 

3. For five years, till his death in October, 1870, General 
Lee lived and worked at Lexington. 

4. Lee's wise counsel and his fine example gave our 
people courage and patience in the dark days of Reconstruc- 
tion. 

5. His life at Lexington told manfully in progress and 
promise. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 325-338. 
Oilman: Robert E. Lee; pages 189-205. 
Williamson : Life of Robert E. Lee; pages 99-149. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Andrews: History of the United States; pages 316-324. 
Daniel: Address on Lee; pages 48-83. 
McCarthy : Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia ; pages 165-199. 

Stiles: Four Years Under Marse Robert; pages 356-368. 



CHAPTER XLIII 



MAURY AND HIS MAPS 

In 1868, three years after General Lee moved to 
Lexington, another famous son of Virginia located 
there. It was Com- 
modore Matthew 
Fontaine Maury. 

He was almost ex- 
actly a year older 
than General Lee, 
and he had been 
born in Spottsylvania 
County, Virginia, not 
far from the spot 
where Stonewall 
Jackson fell in 1863 
and where, in 1864, 
Lee first struck 
Grant. Maury, like 
Lee, had served many 
years under the flag 

of the Union ; and in 1861 he, like Lee again, had 
resigned his position at Washington because he 
felt that he owed his first allegiance to Virginia. 
Having served Virginia and the Confederacy at 

327 




MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



328 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

home and abroad during the war, he finally chose, 
like Lee once more, to be a teacher and to end his 
days under Virginia skies. 

When Maury was a boy of five his father moved 
to Tennessee. There he grew up to the age of 
eighteen. Then, through the influence of a friend 
in Congress, he was appointed a midshipman in 
the navy. On horseback most of the way, he 
traveled slowly to Washington, being on the road 
more than two weeks. In Albemarle Count}^, 
Virginia, he spent a night with some relatives, 
and at supper there he ate the first ice cream 
he ever saw. 

In the navy Maury at first served on the frigate 
Brandywine. This, you may recall, was the very 
ship that carried Lafayette home to France from 
his last visit to the United States. It is said that 
as the days of the long voyage passed the famous 
Frenchman often spoke a word of encourage- 
ment to the young midshipman. Little did he 
dream that Maury would one day be hailed as the 
*' Pathfinder of the Seas," and that France would 
be one of the first countries to honor him. 

Being in the navy gave Maury a fine chance 
to see the world ; and as he sailed from ocean to 
ocean and from sea to sea he kept his eyes open. 
He made notes of what he learned and soon he 
began to write about the lands and the waters of 
the earth. In 1835 he published his first book. 



MAURY AND HIS MAPS 329 

It told about the sailing of ships and the best 
paths for ships upon the seas. 

In 1839 he wrote a series of articles on life in 
the navy and entitled them "Scraps from the 
Lucky Bag of Harry Bluff." These interesting 
papers were printed in the Southern Literary 
Messenger, the Richmond magazine with which 
Edgar Allan Poe and John R. Thompson were at 
various times connected. 

It was not long till Maury was given an im- 
portant position in the navy department at 
Washington, and there he was able to prepare and 
publish many valuable maps and charts. These 
charts were used not only on the ships of the navy 
but also on merchant vessels. By means of them 
the masters of ships were able to make their 
voyages shorter and safer and to profit more by 
the various winds and ocean currents. 

By 1853, when a great conference of scientists 
was held in Belgium, Maury was so well known 
over the world that he was the chief figure among 
the eminent men assembled there. And, in 1858, 
when Cyrus Field succeeded in laying the first 
cable across the Atlantic, he gave chief credit 
to the brains of Maury. 

And Maury wrote for the boys and girls as well as 
for the great scientists and the bold sailors. His 
geographies were used in Virginia schools and 
elsewhere for many years. While Professor 



330 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

McGuffey at the University of Virginia was 
preparing spelling books and readers, Maury was 
writing geographies. Professor McGuffey also 
wrote a geography, but Maury with geographies 
was in his element, just as McGuffey was with 
spellers and readers. 

The idea of a Panama Canal was entertained by 
Maury, and he also laid the foundations for weather 
reports and weather forecasts for the benefit of 
the farmer. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, as already 
indicated, Maury came home to Virginia. He was 
made a commodore in the Confederate navy and 
applied his inventive genius in many ways. For 
example, he assisted in fitting out the famous 
warship Virginia, one of the first ironclads in 
history. 

Maury was elected a teacher at Lexington in 
September, 1868. When he located there a few 
months later he and General Lee were neighbors. 
Lee was president of Washington College (now 
Washington and Lee University) and Maury was 
professor of physics in Virginia Military In- 
stitute. And he lived at Lexington nearly five 
years — almost as long as did General Lee. Lee 
died there in October of 1870 ; Maury, in February 
of 1873. His body was kept there till the spring- 
time — till the flowers of the mountains were 
blooming in Goshen Pass. Then, in keeping with 



MAURY AND HIS MAPS 



331 



his own desire, the casket was borne through 
that beautiful aisle of nature's temple, and so on 
to the distant railway station. In Hollywood 
Cemetery at Richmond he was buried ; and there 
a simple monument marks his grave. 




STONEWALL JACKSON MEMORIAL HALL, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE. 
NEAR IT STANDS SIR MOSES EZEKIEl's STATUE, "VIRGINIA MOURNING 
HER DEAD." THIS STATUE IS ERECTED OVER THE TOMB OF V. M. I. 
CADETS KILLED AT NEW MARKET 



Maury was a good man, reverent in worship, 
genial, and fond of children. It was quite fitting, 
therefore, that he ended his life as a teacher and 
that the splendid high school of the city of Nor- 
folk was named in his honor. Other schools in 



332 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Virginia have buildings that bear his name ; and 
recently a Maury Society was organized at Rich- 
mond with the names of many eminent men and 
women on its roll of membership. 

In this connection we may observe that the 
women, even more than the men, of Virginia 
have for many years been zealous in preserving 
our history. Through various patriotic organi- 
zations they have built up museums, erected 
monuments, given prizes for historical writings, 
and kept alive fair memories. In different parts 
of the state they have offered prizes from year to 
year in the schools for the best essays on the 
great men of Virginia ; and one of Virginia's 
sons thus recognized has been Matthew Fontaine 
Maury. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. One of the greatest scientists of modern times was 
Matthew F. Maury, a native of Virginia. 

2. His chief work for the world was done in making charts 
of the seas and in writing books for sailors. Thus he made 
the paths of ships shorter and safer. 

3. He also gave information that led to the laying of the 
first Atlantic cable. 

4. His last years were spent as a teacher in Virginia Mili- 
tary Institute, at Lexington. 

5. His chief work for boys and girls was done in making 
school geographies. 



MAURY AND HIS MAPS 333 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 305-313. 
Sydenstricker and Burger : School History of Virginia ; 
pages 302-308. 

TEACHERS READINGS 

Alderman: Library of Southern Literature; Vol. VHL 
pages 3435-3457- 

Corbin : Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury; pages 147- 
156; 269-290. 

Everett: Virginia Journal of Education; January, 1918, 
pages 215-217. 

An extended and finely illustrated account of Maury is 
contained in the Journal of American History, Vol. IV, 
No. Ill, pages 319-339 (September, 1910). 

Note the opportunities in this chapter for reviewing 
(briefly) certain events of the Civil War, Lafayette's visits, 
General Lee's work at Lexington, etc. 



CHAPTER XLIV 
JEFFERSON'S DREAM 

It was Thomas Jefferson's dream, when he 
founded the University of Virginia, that soon 
his beloved state should have such a complete 
system of schools that every one of its citizens 
could get an education. This was not only his 
dream, it was his desire, his hope. 

For many years Jefferson's dream seemed to 
many people only a dream ; but in our good day, 
when so many dreams are coming true, Mr. 
Jefferson's fair vision is growing into fact. In 
this chapter we shall see a few of the steps of 
progress by which our schools have been in- 
creased and improved. 

In preceding chapters we have learned some- 
thing of William and Mary College, the University 
of Virginia, Washington and Lee University, and 
Virginia Military Institute. All these great 
schools have figured largely in the recent educa- 
tional progress of our state. The same is true 
of our other colleges — and Virginia has a number 
of them ; but just to name them all here would 
make this chapter too hard for boys and girls. 

33 ^ 



JEFFERSON'S DREAM 



335 



In the Appendix, at the end of the book, those 
who care to do so may find a Hst of Virginia 
colleges, with a few historical facts relating to 
them. 

Our present system of public schools has been 
worked out mainly since 1870. Before the Civil 
War Virginia had several good colleges and many 




JOHN MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL, RICHMOND 



private academies, but only a few public common 
schools. During the war the schools, like almost 
everything else of the kind, were broken up ; and 
during the years of Reconstruction, following the 
war, the people were in debt and schools were still 
neglected. But about 1870 a new constitution 
was adopted, new enterprises were being under- 
taken, and a new plan for public schools was put 



336 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

on foot. About the same time, moreover, Mr. 
George Peabody, a native of Massachusetts, gave 
three milUon dollars to aid education in the South- 
ern states. And soon Virginia began to profit to 
some extent by this gift. Since those days, and 
up to the present, the wealth of our people has 
increased and their interest in education has 
become more general. As a result we perhaps 
already have more schools and better schools than 
even Mr. Jefferson dreamed of. But he was an 
apostle of progress. He would have us con- 
tinually going forward, seeking the most and the 
best. 

In 1870, when the new laws for public schools 
were put into effect, Dr. William H. Rufifner was 
made superintendent of schools for the state. For 
twelve years he held that position and within that 
time he rendered a great service. Some persons 
think that, next to Mr. Jefferson, Dr. Ruffner 
has done more for public education in Virginia 
than any other man. He died in 1908, but his 
work, like that of Jefferson, still lives. He is 
sometimes called the "Horace Mann of Virginia." 

Some im^portant events of Ruffner's long term 
and of the years following it may be noted here. 

In 1872 the Virginia Polytechnic Institute was 
established at Blacksburg. It has trained thou- 
sands of young men to be farmers, mechanics, and 
builders. In 1878 the Miller Manual Labor School 



JEFFERSON'S DREAM 



337 



for boys and girls was opened near Crozet, in 
Albemarle County. It was provided by a man 
who was once a poor boy and who learned how 
poor life is without learning. And Mr. Miller 
believed that one good way to teach the head 




THE McGUFFEY SCHOOL, CHARLOTTESVILLE. THIS IS NAMED FOR THE 
AUTHOR OF THE FAMOUS McGUFFEY READERS AND SPELLERS, WHO 
USED TO LIVE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE 

and the heart is to make the hands skillful and 
useful. This was also the belief of General Arm- 
strong, who, in 1868, had started a school for 
negroes at Hampton. As time went on many 
Indians were also admitted to Hampton. It has 
become one of the famous schools of the world. 



338 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

We can readily see that education should reach 
all classes of citizens. The negroes of the South 
were freed from slavery by the Civil War ; then 
they were made citizens of their respective states. 
At first some of our people did not favor schools 
for the negroes, but soon it was seen that all who 
are required to support the government ought 
to be trained in both knowledge and work. At 
present nearly every one sees the need of educating 
the negroes and the Indians, as well as all other 
classes of people within our borders ; and we are 
now trying to find the sort of education that will 
make each boy and girl, each man and woman, a 
loyal and helpful citizen. 

In 1884 our first state normal school for white 
women was established at Farmville, and Dr. 
Ruffner was made its first president. From its 
halls and classrooms multitudes of trained teachers 
have gone out into our schools. Two years 
earlier the state legislature had established a 
school at Petersburg to train young men and 
women of the negro race to be teachers and 
skilled workers. This school is still in successful 
operation. 

One of the first trustees of Farmville was Dr. 
J. L. M. Curry, a native of Georgia, but for many 
years a resident of Virginia. In 1881 Dr. Curry 
had been made general agent of the Peabody Fund, 
mentioned above ; and through his recommenda- 



JEFFERSON'S DREAM 339 

tlon money from the Peabody Fund was occa- 
sionally secured by Farmville, Hampton, and 
other Virginia schools. 

Dr. Curry lived in Richmond. Dr. Barnas 
Sears, who preceded Curry as Peabody agent, 
lived in Staunton. Sears Hill in that city is one 
of his monuments. 

In 1902 Virginia adopted another constitution 
(the fifth in her history), and with it came an- 
other revival in public education. This revival 
is still going on, and so many great events have 
marked the years that one feels helpless in trying 
to select a few. 

One of the notable features of our recent 
educational progress is seen in the better provision 
that the state is constantly making for training 
and for paying teachers. Another great feature 
is the growing number of women teachers in our 
public schools. For some years past they have 
outnumbered the men teachers by four or five to 
one. In view of these facts we are not surprised 
that our state, between the years 1909 and 191 2, 
opened three new normal schools for women : 
one at Harrisonburg (1909), another at East 
Radford (191 1), and a third at Fredericksburg 
(1912). 

In 1905, the University of Virginia received 
special gifts of ^150,000 to be used in founding a 
new department for teachers. This new depart- 



340 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



ment was fitly named the Curry Memorial 
School of Education. Dr. Curry has been justly 
termed the "Horace Mann of the South," and 
this school that bears his name is adding unto his 
honor. In 1906 William and Mary became a 
state college, and in 1918, as related in Chapter 
X, it began to admit women as students. Early 




SCHOOL BUILDING AT RUSTBURG, CAMPBELL COUNTY. VIRGINU IS 
BUILDING MORE RURAL SCHOOLS LIKE THIS ONE 

in 1920 the University of Virginia opened certain 
of its departments to advanced women students. 

The year 1905 was also marked by the famous 
"May Campaign," in which the school leaders of 
Virginia joined together in showing the people the 
value of better schools. In thirty days one hun- 
dred speakers, including the governor, delivered 
three hundred addresses in ninety-four different 
counties of the state. At the same time thou- 



JEFFERSON'S DREAM 341 

sands of pages of reading-matter on education were 
sent out through the newspapers and otherwise. 

And soon the resuhs began to show, especially 
in more and better high schools. In 1906 there 
were only 75 high schools in the state. Only 
ten of these were free and gave a four-year course. 
In 1910 the number of high schools was 360; 
and by 1916 there were more than four hundred. 

One of the most notable events in the recent 
school progress of Virginia was the increase of 
school funds under the Smith-Hughes law. Under 
this law the federal government and the state 
government join together in providing special 
training in certain of our schools for home- 
making, farming, trades, and manufacturing. 

Throughout the history of Virginia the various 
religious denominations have done much for 
education, and for many years our people had 
to rely largely upon the colleges and academies 
of the churches. To-day, as the state and city 
school systems are being perfected, the influence 
of church schools is being reduced ; but the number 
of church schools is still large and many of them 
are of high standing. A few of them have recently 
been richly endowed. 

Two very encouraging facts may be observed as 
we study our recent educational growth. First, 
we have come to seek an education for life and 
work ; for character and good citizenship. Second, 



342 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

the old prejudices against public schools and the 
education of the common people have almost 
passed away. Now nearly every one sees that in 
a government by the people all the people must be 
trained. 

The fact that we now have in Virginia more 
than five hundred public high schools and more 
than ten thousand teachers in public service 
proves that our people have caught Jefferson's 
vision and have come to rejoice in his dream. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Our present system of public schools in Virginia dates 
from the year 1870. 

2. Ever since 1902 or thereabouts we have been having 
an almost constant revival in education. 

3. In a government like ours, in which all the people take 
part, all must be educated. 

4. In recent years much thought has been given to better 
training and better salaries for teachers. 

5. Only a few of our great leaders in education are named 
in this chapter. The names of many others are written in 
the larger books. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History ; pages'339-347. 
Sydenstricker and Burger: School History of Virginia; 
pages 324-333. 

TEACHERS READINGS 

Alderman and Gordon: J. L. M. Curry; pages 249-287. 
Heatwole : History of Education in Virginia; pages 210- 
279. 



CHAPTER XLV 
VIRGINIA AUTHORS 

Men and women who make books make history, 
just as truly as do soldiers, statesmen, and teachers. 
And the history of no country is complete if it 
has left out of its pages the story of those who 
have written the books that the people read and 
composed the songs that the people sing. 

Virginia is rich in literature as well as in history. 
Indeed, as already suggested, her literature is a 
part of her history — it is a part of her life. 

Some of Virginia's best-known authors have 
carved their places in our history with swords 
or with axes or with spades, as well as with pens. 
For example, the first Virginia author, as we 
learned some time ago, was Captain John Smith. 
He used the sword, the ax, and the spade, as well 
as the pen. William Byrd wrote some interesting 
things about Indian customs, the Dismal Swamp, 
and how Spotswood made iron ; but we recall that 
he also laid out Richmond and Petersburg. So 
he too must have used the ax and the spade ; 
or at least he made others use them. 

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and 

343 



344 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

Matthew F. Maury are numbered among our 
great authors ; and yet at first thought we term 
Washington a soldier, Jefferson a statesman, and 
Maury a scientist. 

But as a rule when we speak of Virginia authors 
we mean those persons who have done their chief 
work with the pen. 

Such were John Esten Cooke and John R. 
Thompson, of whom we have already learned 
something. Thompson wrote ringing poems about 
General Ashby, General Stuart, General Lee ; 
about "Music in Camp" and "The Battle Rain- 
bow." John Esten Cooke wrote stories — history 
stories — of just the sort that healthy boys and 
girls like to read. He also wrote books for grown- 
up people, but his "Surry of Eagle's Nest," "Lee 
and His Lieutenants," "Fairfax," and "Stories 
of the Old Dominion" will delight young readers 
as well as older ones. He wrote in all some 
thirty-odd volumes — too many to mention here. 

One of the best known and best loved of all Vir- 
ginia authors is Thomas Nelson Page, to whom 
reference has been made in preceding chapters. 
Mr. Page was born in the old county of Hanover 
— the native county of Patrick Henry and Henry 
Clay. His stories and his poems have a delightful 
flavor of ante-bellum days. For a number of 
years he lived in Washington City. In 191 3 he 
was appointed United States ambassador to Italy. 



VIRGINIA AUTHORS 



345 



Possibly some day he will write something of what 
he has seen in Rome. 

Perhaps the greatest name in our galaxy of 
authors is that of Edgar Allan Poe. Nearly every- 
one has heard of him 
and of his poem called 
" The Raven " ; and 
most children enjoy 
reading his "Annabel 
Lee" ; but for most of 
his poems and stories 
we must wait till we 
are full grown. 

Other Virginia au- 
thors that we must re- 
member to read some 
day are James Barron 
Hope, Father Tabb, 
Father Ryan, and 
Margaret J. Preston. 

Three women writers whose names are high 
upon Virginia's scroll of honor are Amelie Rives, 
Mary Johnston, and Ellen Glasgow. It will not 
be long till boys and girls who are now in the 
fifth grade can read Miss Johnston's stories of 
colonial days and of the Civil War. 

In 1828 George W. Bagby was born in Buck- 
ingham County, Virginia. As a boy he lived in 
Lynchburg. During most of the Civil War he 




EDGAR ALLAN POE 



346- 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger 
in Richmond. He Hved in different parts of 
Virginia most of the time till his death in 1883. 
He was an editor, a poet, a lecturer, and a story- 
writer. Much that he wrote is full of humor. 
His best-known piece is called "Jud Brownin's 
Account of Rubenstein's Playing." Another that 

may interest young 
people is entitled 
" Fishing in the Ap- 
pomattox." 

John Pendleton 
Kennedy (1795- 
1870), like Poe and 
Margaret J. Preston, 
was not born in Vir- 
ginia, but he was in 
the state so much 
that he knew it well. 
He wrote three 
novels, more or less 
historical, that are fascinating to the spirit ot 
youth. One of these, "Swallow Barn," gives a 
fine picture of life in Virginia a hundred years 
ago. In it "we attend 'Court Day,' witness an 
'Opossum Hunt,' and enjoy the mirth and 
hospitality of a 'Country Gathering.' " 

Two Virginia authors who have recently died 
are Molly Elliott Seawell and John Fox. Both 




MARY JOHNSTON 



VIRGINIA AUTHORS 347 

of them have written much that young people 
like to read. Miss Seawell's first successful piece 
was a naval story for boys called "Little Jarvis," 
which was awarded a prize m 1890 by the Youth's 
Companion. Her works include nearly twenty 
titles. 

John Fox was a native of Kentucky, but for 
many years he lived at Big Stone Gap, Virginia. 
He wrote of the Cumberland Mountains and their 
people, in Kentucky and in Virginia. "The 
Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" and "The 
Trail of the Lonesome Pine" will stir the hearts 
of young and old wherever they are read. 

It must not be understood that all of the dis- 
tinguished authors of Virginia are named in this 
chapter. We have introduced here only a few 
— not even all of those whose writings might 
appeal to boys and girls. There are many more 
who are worthy of mention and of our acquaint- 
ance. Their names, with those of scores of our 
heroes, teachers, and seers, are written in the 
larger books. They have all had a share in our 
larger life. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Alderman: A Fifth Reader; pages 22-24 (John Smith); 
99-108 (John Esten Cooke) ; 1 12-1 15 (George Washington) ; 
116 (James Barron Hope); 179-184 (John Fox); 243-246 
(John R. Thompson). 



348 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Cooke : Virginia ; pages 490-498. 

Painter: Poets of Virginia; pages 9-27. 

Rosewell Page : Sketches of Virginia authors in recent 
issues of the Virginia Journal of Education. 

For reference, teachers will find "Southern Fiction Prior 
to i860," by Dr. J. G. Johnson, Charlottesville, Va., very 
convenient and valuable. 



CHAPTER XLVI 
FARMS AND ORCHARDS 

From the days of John Rolfe, so long ago, 
Virginians every year have been finding gold on 
the tobacco leaf. For a long time now they have 
known that kernels of corn and grains of wheat 
are also touched with gold ; and in recent years, 
in many parts of the state, they have been pick- 
ing "apples of gold in baskets of silver." 

This is only one way of saying that, throughout 
all the history of Virginia, farming has been a 
great source of wealth ; and that, in recent years, 
fruit-growing has also become an important in- 
dustry. 

Almost from the founding of Jamestown, tobacco 
and corn were grown by the settlers. Later, as 
the settlements extended northward and west- 
ward, wheat, oats, rye, and buckwheat were 
introduced and grown extensively as food for 
man and beast. Flax and cotton were cultivated 
to some extent, but neither became a great staple 
till after the Revolution. Then cotton came into 
keen demand and was more largely grown. 

The use of potatoes began, no doubt, with the 
first settlements, but they were perhaps never 

349 



:>:> 



;o A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



an important crop in \^irginia till after 1850. 
The peanut is a newcomer. It \\as not much 
cultivated here till after i860; but since the 
Civil War it has become a valuable crop in certain 
parts of the state. 

Speaking of peanuts suggests Smithlield hams. 
Smithfield is the largest town of Isle of Wight 
County, and for more than a hundred years it 
has been widely known for the ham.s cured and 
marketed there. Each year now Smithfield packs 
and ships about 90,000 of the finest hams known 
to the world. And it is said that their fine flavor 
is partly due to the fact that the hogs that supply 
the hams are fed on peanuts. 

The raising of horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and 
poultry is regarded as a proper branch of farm- 
ing ; and Virginia horses and cattle have long 
been among the best. 

Particular sections of Virginia are devoted to 
special kinds of farming. For example, the region 
around Norfolk is the great trucking section. 
As long ago as 1909 the truck crop of the state 
was valued at ^15,000,000. One farmer sold his 
Irish potato crop for ^20,000 ; and one county 
grew five per cent of all the sweet potatoes pro- 
duced in the United States. 

It is an interesting fact, however, that the most 
famous cabbage produced in Virginia is not grown 
in the Norfolk district, but in Wvthe Countv 



J 5 



FARMS AND ORCHARDS 351 

around Rural Retreat. Some years ago the 
community was settled by certain thrifty families 
who discovered that the soil was excellent for 
cabbage. From a small beginning the cabbage 
trade at Rural Retreat has grown till now it is 
a common thing for a thousand carloads or more 
to be shipped from that one station in a single 
season. 

In 1910 it was reported that in Patrick County 
there was an apple tree which had borne more 
than a hundred bushels of apples at a single crop. 
This means that Virginia is a fine country for 
growing apples and other fruits. 

The most famous apple produced in the state 
is called the Albemarle Pippin. It grows to 
perfection in Albemarle, Nelson, and adjacent 
counties of the Piedmont section. It is considered 
the best flavored apple in the world. About the 
year 1850 a gentleman from Albemarle presented 
a barrel of his pippins to Queen Victoria, and from 
that day to this the Albemarle Pippin has been 
the favorite apple in the royal household of Great 
Britain. 

It is a remarkable fact that in some of the best 
fruit districts of the state the people years ago 
imagined that apples could not be grown profitably. 
For example, in 1807 Dr. Peachy Harrison, writing 
of Rockingham Count3% declared that fruits of 
all kinds were a very uncertain crop. In recent 



352 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

years Rockingham apples and peaches have proved 
great prize-winners. 

About 1885 General Gilbert Meem sold his fine 
farm in Shenandoah County for ^90,000. The 
gentleman who bought it began at once to set out 
acres of apple trees and peach trees in the upland 



r 




;^ 






AN APPLE ORCHARD OF NORTHLKN »ik.,lM\. slNCh I(S,S5 MAN i LARGE 
ORCHARDS HAVE BEEN PLANTED 



fields. His neighbors talked and wondered. But 
in 1910 or thereabouts those upland fields, covered 
with apple orchards and peach orchards, were 
sold for about ^140,000. And the best part of 
the farm was still untouched. By that time 
the neighbors had stopped talking and had gone 
to planting fruit trees. To-day vast orchards 
cover the hills for miles up and down the valley. 



FARMS AND ORCHARDS 



353 



This is only an illustration of the way in which 
fruit-growing has developed in certain parts of 
Virginia since 1885. By 1900 more than twenty 
counties of the state had upwards of 100,000 
apple trees apiece. 




SHIRLEY MANSION 



For many years our farmers depended mainly 
upon timothy and clover for their supply of hay. 
These grasses are still grown extensively ; but in 
recent years alfalfa has been introduced and it 
has come rapidly into favor. Some of the largest 
alfalfa farms in the eastern states are now in 
Virginia ; and in many sections a small field of 



354 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

alfalfa may be seen on nearly every farm. It 
has proved of great value in the feeding of cows 
and hogs. 

The yield of wheat per acre in Virginia has not 
been as large on the average as it should have 
been, but it is on the increase ; and some large 
fields have been known to produce as much as 
forty bushels to the acre. From twenty to thirty 
bushels to the acre are grown regularly on many 
farms. Wheat is one of our leading grain crops, 
and the total amount produced in the state each 
year is about 10,000,000 bushels. 

But corn is king in Virginia fields, and has been 
so for decades. For every bushel of wheat that our 
farmers grow, they raise about five bushels of corn ; 
and the recent increase in the number of bushels 
of corn grown to the acre has been wonderful. 
Forty years ago, when persons who "went west" 
would return and report that seventy and eighty 
bushels of corn were grown on an acre in Illinois 
and Iowa, the stories were hardly credited. Some 
of the old farmers did not believe that eighty 
bushels of corn could grow on one acre of land. 
But now in Virginia many a farmer or farmer's 
boy has raised more than a hundred bushels on 
an acre. And the best of it is that these large 
crops are often produced on ground that has been 
known for years as poor land. Before the World 
War came and pushed up the prices of all farm 



FARMS AND ORCHARDS 355 

products, the annual corn crop of Virginia was 
valued at ^35,000,000 or ^40,000,000. 

Why is it that we are now growing so much 
more wheat and corn and other things to the acre 
than we did formerly ? 

There are several reasons. One is that farms are 
being divided — made smaller — and this gives each 
farmer a better chance to plow well, to harrow 
well, to plant well, and to fertilize well. Another 
reason is that we are getting better machinery 
for farming — better plows, better harrows, and 
better drills. But the main reason is, perhaps, 
that we are getting more and better schools. 
Better schools mean better farms, better roads, 
better stock, and better citizens. 

The state school at Blacksburg has done a great 
work in helping the farmers — in making farmers ; 
and in each of the ten Congressional districts of 
the state we have now at least one agricultural 
high school. A little agriculture, at least, is 
taught in nearly every school, high and low, in 
Virginia. Boys are trained in corn clubs and pig 
clubs ; girls are trained in garden clubs, canning 
clubs, and poultry clubs. The state maintains 
a special department of agriculture and the officer 
at the head of it sends out frequent books and 
bulletins that tell farmers what to do and how 
. to do it. At various places in the state demonstra- 
tion farms and orchards are operated ; and nearly 



356 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

every progressive county now employs a demon- 
stration agent who helps the farmers in securing 
good seed, good stock, good fertilizer, and in 
marketing their produce to the best advantage. 

From early colonial times Virginia has been an 
agricultural state. Her soil and climate have 
made her so and now science and art are joining 
with nature to make her more so. About three- 
fourths of our people still live on the land ; and 
the chances for success on our farms have never 
been so promising as they are to-day. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Throughout the history of Virginia plantations and 
farms have been the homes of most of the people. 

2. For many years stock-raising has been an important 
branch of agriculture, and in recent years fruit-growing has 
developed rapidly. 

3. Teaching agriculture in our schools and through many 
other channels has done much to improve Virginia farms and 
Virginia farmers. 

4. Good citizens want good schools, good roads, and good 
farms. 

READINGS 

The reports and handbooks issued by the Commissioner 
of Agriculture at Richmond will be found of interest and 
value. A number of them should be in the school library 
or on the reading table. 

Note the opportunities in this chapter for reviewing earlier 
parts of our history. 



CHAPTER XLVII 
CITIES AND FACTORIES 

Cities and factories, like farms and orchards, 
naturally go together. And cities and factories, 
even more than farms and orchards, depend upon 
roads, railroads, and waterways. For the cities 
and factories are centers of trade and commerce. 
The farms and orchards, the forests and mines, 
supply raw materials such as grains, fruits, wool, 
cotton, woods, and ores ; the factories transform 
the raw materials into finished products such as 
flour, cloth, trunks, watches, and engines ; and 
the cities send out all these things to the places 
where they are needed, shipping them by trucks, 
trains, and boats. 

The cities and factories depend upon the farms, 
the orchards, the forests, the fisheries, and the 
mines. The farms, the forests, and the rest depend 
upon the cities and the factories. And all depend 
upon the roads, the railroads, and the waterways. 
In fact, every one of them depends upon all the 
others. All stand or fall together. 

As we have already seen, the history of Virginia 
has taken its chief character from the plantations 

357 



358 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

and the farms, for most Virginians have always 
been a rural people ; but our towns and cities 
have long been centers of interest, and in recent 
years they have grown rapidly in size and influence. 

In all, Virginia has more than twenty cities. 
Most of them are small, but a few of them are 
now of considerable size. The oldest of all is 
Williamsburg. The largest, for many years, has 
been Richmond. The busiest is Norfolk, and it 
is next to the largest too. The hilliest is Lynch- 
burg. The most scholarly is Charlottesville or 
Lexington. The newest is Hopewell, which grew 
up as a factory center during the World War 
(1914-1918). 

Nearly half of our cities are on navigable 
water ; and among these are Norfolk, Portsmouth, 
Newport News, Hampton, Alexandria, and Rich- 
mond. The harbor of Norfolk is one of the finest 
in the world. Bristol, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Dan- 
ville, Staunton, Clifton Forge, and Charlottes- 
ville are not so fortunate in waterways, but they 
are well supplied with railroads. Winchester 
and Harrisonburg have grown fat upon the farms 
and orchards of the Valley. Buena Vista has its 
furnaces and paper mills ; Petersburg has its 
peanuts, its tobacco, its cotton mills, and its 
trunk factories ; Radford and Fredericksburg 
have their splendid water power ; Suflolk has its 
railroads and its banks. 



CITIES AND FACTORIES 359 

Every city of Virginia has some special ad- 
vantages of its own and every one has at least a 
few chapters of interesting history. Williams- 
burg was the colonial capital from 1698 to 1779. 
Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. 
Alexandria was the home town of Washington ; 
Charlottesville was the home town of Jefferson ; 
Fredericksburg was the home of Washington's 
mother in her old age. Winchester changed hands 
during the Civil War seventy-two times. Peters- 
burg has the Crater. And in Petersburg were 
made large quantities of shot and shell used in 
1898 in the war with Spain. 

All in all, of course, Richmond has gathered unto 
herself the largest sheaf of honors in the history 
of our state. Its seven hills are glory-crowned. 
Its churches, its schools, its homes, its hospitals, 
its factories, its commerce, its history are all 
known afar and are justly famed. Her monu- 
ments tell of a splendid past, but her progress is 
ever leading to a better future. As two examples 
of her enterprise it may be noted, first, that 
Richmond introduced the electric railway to favor 
in the United States ; second, that Richmond 
locomotives are pulling railroad trains around the 
world. 

In no department of life have our cities served 
the comm.onwealth more helpfully than in the 
field of education. Some of them have school 



36o 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



systems equal to the best in this country ; and 
their school buildings are in many cases an orna- 
ment and an inspiration, as well as excellent 
places of work. Thus by perfecting their school 
systems, by erecting good school buildings, and 
by securing the best teachers, our cities have 
set a standard for the whole state. 

One is not to understand, of course, that a 
country school must be just like a city school ; 



•*■ *i:t^ 







•^^J.— -• 



'iU" 



■JfT'^^'^Z^r- 





DAN RIVER COTTON MILLS, NEAR DANVILLE 

but each should be the best possible for its own 
field. And a good school in the one place is almost 
certain to encourage a good school in the other 
place. 

Not only in developing good schools have our 
cities helped the whole state, but also in cleaning 
up streets and alleys, in providing pure water and 
pure milk, and in laying down rules for the pro- 
tection of health and the prevention of disease. 
When all the people of the country once learn 



CITIES AND FACTORIES 361 

to guard as carefully against disease as the cities 
require their folk to do, the figures on life-saving 
and health-saving will be much more striking than 
they now are. • 

The cities and factories have in recent years 
drawn many of our young people from the farms 
and orchards — too many, far too many ; but we 
must always try to do justice to both — to city 
and to country alike. Both cities and farms are 
necessary and both offer splendid chances to 
people who are honest, 'industrious, and well 
trained. Both must prosper together or both will 
suffer together in the long run. And Virginia 
is especially fortunate in having so many natural 
advantages for both. Nature has marked out 
certain places on our coasts and rivers and labeled 
them "For Cities," just as she has spread rich 
soil upon our well-watered valleys and labeled 
them "For Farms." 

In the summer of 1919 the lawmakers of Virginia 
met in special session to plan for better roads. 
This promises well for cities and factories, for 
farms and orchards — for every interest and 
industry of the state. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Cities and factories naturally go together and both 
need roads, railroads, and waterways. 

2. Virginia has more than twenty cities. None of them 
is very large, but most of them have important factories. 



362 ^ A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

3. Williamsburg is the oldest city of Virginia. Richmond 
and Norfolk are the largest. Every city in the state has an 
interesting history. 

4. The cities have helped the country through their schools 
as well as through their factories. 

5. The country needs the city and the city needs the coun- 
try. Both must prosper together or both will suffer together. 

READINGS 

In this chapter the correlation of geography and civics 
with history is prominent. Accordingly, the special pages 
on Virginia in your geo^aphy and certain chapters in 
the textbooks on civil government will be found appro- 
priate in connection. Pages 250-288 of Commissioner 
Koiner's handbook of Virginia, 1910, are of decided interest. 
See also pages 3-5 and 33-64 in Koiner's handbook of 1919. 

Note the relation of Chapter XII to this chapter. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 
FOUR MORE VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 

In Chapter XXVI we found the names of four 
early Presidents who were sons of Virginia. They 
were Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. 
In this chapter we shall learn the names of four 
more Presidents who were born in the Old Do- 
minion. They are William Henry Harrison, John 
Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson. 
Certainly there is good reason for calling Virginia 
the Mother of Presidents as well as the Mother of 
States. 

William Henry Harrison was born in Charles 
City County in the year 1773. He was educated 
at Hampden-Sidney College. His father was 
Benjamin Harrison, a friend of Washington, a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and 
governor of Virginia at the end of the Revolution. 

Harrison won distinction fighting the Indians 
in the West, as a general in the War of 18 12, and 
as a member of Congress from Ohio ; but when 
he became President he went to the White House 
from a farm, just as Washington had done. We 
can probably remember President Harrison most 

363 



364 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



easily by his nickname — "Old Tippecanoe." 
He won his title by defeating the Indians in 181 1 
on the Tippecanoe River, in Indiana. 

General Harrison was inaugurated President 
on March 4, 1841, amid the high hopes of all his 
friends ; but just a month later he died. He was 

the first President 
of the United States 
to die in office. 

According to the 
Constitution, he was 
succeeded as soon as 
possible by the Vice- 
President, who, in 
this case, was John 
Tyler, another Vir- 
ginian. In old Wil- 
liamsburg the house 
is still pointed out 
where Mr. Tyler was 
when a messenger 
from Washington 
came riding up 
and handed him a 
letter. The letter contained the news of Mr. Har- 
rison's death ; and Mr. Tyler at once hurried to 
Washington and took the oath of office as President. 
Tyler was also a native of Charles City County, 
Virginia ; but he and Harrison were living in 




JOHN TYLER 



FOUR MORE VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 365 

different states (Virginia and Ohio) when they 
were candidates on the same ticket. The cam- 
paign in which they were elected was an exciting 
one, for they had to run against "Little Van'* 
(Van Buren), who was then President and who 
was a clever politician. But the friends of 
Harrison and Tyler invented a campaign cry that 
seemed to have magic in it. It was "Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler too !" By shouting it and singing 
songs of log cabins in the West, they won a great 
victory. 

Inasmuch as the majority in Congress did not 
usually agree with President Tyler, it was difficult 
for them to work together ; but in spite of this 
several big things were done under his adminis- 
tration. Among these were the settlement of an 
important boundary question with Canada and 
the passing of the bill which offered Texas a place 
in the Union as a state. 

All this was in the period of growth and great 
differences. The issues that were rising between 
the North and the South were becoming sharper 
and sharper, and Mr. Tyler lived to see the first 
sad year of the Civil War. One of the last great 
acts of his life was an earnest effort to save the 
Union b}^ peaceable terms. 

He died in Januar}^, 1862, and was buried in 
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. His son, Lyon 
G. Tyler, has written a number of books of history 



366 



A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 



and was for many years president of William and 
Mary College. 

' In 1 849 General Zachary Taylor was inaugurated 
President. He was a native of Orange Count}^, 
Virginia, and had won great fame in the war with 

Mexico, 1 846- 1 848. 
At the time he was 
elected President he 
was living on his 
plantation in Louisi- 
ana. He served only 
sixteen months as 
President, for he died 
in July, 1850. He was 
the second President 
to die in office. 

General Taylor 
had very little edu- 
cation and scarcely 
any training for the 
office of President ; 
but he was honest 
and tried hard to do his duty. His nickname, 
*'01d Rough and Ready," was given him by his 
soldiers in Mexico, and it fitted his blunt, sturdy 
character. 

In 191 3, more than sixty years after the death 
of President Taylor, another son of Virginia 
entered the White House and assumed the duties 




ZACHARY TAYLOR 



FOUR MORE VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS 367 

of President. This man was Woodrow Wilson ; 
and it would be hard to find a sharper contrast 
than is manifest between him and Taylor. For 
Wilson has been a lifelong student. He is well 
educated and is thoroughly trained in the science 
of government. 

The house in Staunton, in which the Wilsons 
were living when Woodrow was born, in 1856, is 
now marked with a tablet and attracts the 
attention of many visitors. It is not far from 
old Fort Lewis ; and the Wilsons are of the same 
Scotch-Irish stock that John Lewis and his sons 
led into Augusta County in 1732. 

The strength and skill of President Wilson have 
been proved in many ways. Hardly any President 
in our history has been confronted with such 
tremendous tasks as those that have been thrust 
upon him. His patience with Mexico, his prudence 
and justice in the World War, and his courageous 
humanity in advocating a league to enforce peace, 
all mark him as a great man. In thought we 
associate him with Washington and Lincoln. Each 
of the three is linked by history with a great 
achievement : Washington with the founding of 
our republic ; Lincoln with preserving the Union ; 
and Wilson with fighting to make the world safe 
for democracv. 



368 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

1. Among the early Presidents of the United States, four 
were Virginians. They were Washington, Jefferson, Madi- 
son, and Monroe. 

2. Among the later Presidents, four more have been na- 
tives of Virginia. They are W. H. Harrison, John Tyler, 
Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson. 

3. Wilson takes rank with the greatest of all the Presidents. 

4. His good education and his special studies in civil 
government have been of much value to him. 

PUPIL'S READINGS 

Chandler: Makers of Virginia History; pages 285-294. 
Hurlbut : Lives of Our Presidents; pages 1 10-13 1; I4i~ 
149; 284-291. 

Pleasants: Old Virginia Days and Ways; pages 5-13. 

TEACHER'S READINGS 

Chandler and Chitwood : Makers of American History; 
pages 217-224. 

Dickson : American History ; pages 347-364. 

Gordon: Address on John Tyler; U. S. Senate Docu- 
ment No. 256. 



CHAPTER XLIX 
VIRGINIA AND THE WORLD WAR 

In 1917, when the United States entered 
positively into the great war for human rights, 
Virginia, as always since her youth, was ready 
to do her part. As one of the forty-eight states 
whose stars shine on our flag, she proved herself 
worthy of her history and of the goodly company 
in which she has lived so long. 

In all, 85,810 Virginians served in the armies 
and navies of liberty, under the Star-Spangled 
Banner. How many more entered the conflict 
under the flags of the Allies prior to 1917 we 
perhaps will never know. But if their number 
was not large it was inspiring ; and some of their 
names are written in light and are sealed with 
golden stars. 

The appeal that this war made to students in 
our schools and colleges is remarkable, but not 
surprising. Young men who study history learn 
much about liberty, justice, human rights, and 
human duties. These things become principles 
in their life and thought. Therefore, when right 
and justice and liberty are threatened, the soul 

2 B 369 



370 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

of the student is stirred. He does not have to 
wait until his own shores are invaded — he can 




WOODROW WILSON 



hear the cry of his own people in the distress of 
other lands. And so our best young men, like the 



VIRGINIA AND THE WORLD WAR 371 

young men of the provinces in olden days, went 
out first. Some of them went out from Oxford 
University in England, whither they had gone as 
Rhodes scholars. Others went out from our 
schools and our cities at home. And some who 
went, though not her sons, Virginia, as a foster 
mother, is proud to claim, because they were 
sojourners for a while within her borders. 

On the campus of our state university, as 
already noted in Chapter XXXI, is an inspiring 
monument to James McConnell. He was a son 
of North Carolina, but he was a student for a while 
in Virginia. Therefore Virginia honors him, to- 
gether with others who were like him. Almost 
at the first he saw that the fight of England and 
France and Belgium was really a fight for human 
rights everywhere. He also felt that America 
owed something to France for Lafayette and his 
comrades. So he went to pay, as he said, his 
part of our debt to Lafayette. And he paid it to 
the full. For him, as for many others, flying for 
France was dying for France. But it ^vas also 
dying for Virginia, for America, for humanity. 
As he faced the hard tasks of duty his heart must 
have answered to a thrill of joy, and doubtless 
he and many others must have felt, as General 
Pershing said when he finally led over the Amer- 
ican hosts, "Lafayette, we are here!" 

In addition to our fighting men, our young 



372 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

women went also as workers in the camps and 
hospitals. How many there were of these we 
perhaps do not know as yet ; but at home and 
abroad they served Virginia and the nations 
faithfully and nobly. 

And what we say of those who were soldiers 
and sailors, marines and aviators, nurses and 
community hostesses, we can say of most of the 
others of our two million Virginians. Nearly all 
of them were brave, loyal, and active in some 
form of service — some in many forms. The 
farmers and their wives in producing and saving 
food, the boys and girls with their hoes and with 
their knitting needles, the bankers and the busi- 
ness men in buying and selling liberty bonds, 
the managers of the Red Cross campaigns and 
related movements — all did their parts in the 
great conflict. And none performed their tasks 
of patriotism more skillfully or more loyally than 
the teachers and the pupils in our schools. 

Virginia has special reasons for honest pride 
in those* stirring years. For example, one of the 
greatest camps in which men were trained for 
service was located within her borders and was 
named after one of her greatest sons. This was 
Camp Lee, situated near Petersburg, on the very 
fields that Lee and other skillful soldiers had made 
historic fifty-odd years before. 

Virginia is proud of the crosses and medals — 



VIRGINIA AND THE WORLD WAR 373 

the special marks of distinguished service — that 
many of her sons have worn ; and she is also 
proud of the simple wooden crosses that mark 
the resting places of many more, "somewhere in 
France." In all, no less than 2513 Virginia men 
died in the great cause — some abroad, some at 
home. 

The one particular thing that Virginians are 
proudest of is the fact that the President of the 
United States — the commander-in-chief of all 
our armies and navies — was a son of Virginia, 
and that he received an important part of his 
education at our state university. 

It was quite proper, therefore, that Governor 
Westmoreland Davis, in January, 1919, saw fit 
to appoint the Virginia War History Commission. 
This is a body of men and women, with head- 
quarters in Richmond and with branches in every 
county and city of the state, whose duty it is to 
gather together and preserve for future generations 
the records of our people in those wonderful 
years so lately past, so sad and yet so full of 
progress and promise. It was the progress of 
high ideals. It is the promise of peace, established 
upon justice and righteousness. 

FACTS TO REMEMBER 

r. Virginia did her part in the great war for human rights, 
1914-1918. 



374 A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA 

2. Men and women, girls and boys, all worked together 
in many forms of service. 

3. More than 2500 Virginia men died in the service, at 
home and abroad. 

4. Camp Lee, one of the great training camps for Amer- 
ican soldiers, was located near Petersburg. 

5. In January, 1919, Governor Davis appointed the Vir- 
ginia War History Commission. 

6. It is now the duty of every citizen to remember what 
the war has taught us and to labor for justice and brother- 
hood among the nations. 

READINGS 

For pupils and teachers the following volumes will be 
found appropriate and helpful : 

Greenlaw : Builders of Democracy. 

McKinley, Coulomb, and Gerson : A History of the Great 
War. 

For teachers the following book is excellent : 

Hayes : A Brief History of the Great War. 

Suggestions. — One of the best ways to review is to 
reach back a little each day, linking each lesson with those 
that have gone before; but at the end of the volume certain 
special forms of review may be undertaken. 

For example, at this point it would be profitable to write 
down on the blackboard the six part-headings of this book, 
see that each is clearly understood, and then have the class 
put in under each head as many as possible of the chapter 
headings. A day or two could be spent upon this exercise. 



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